Santina Wheat

When I decided to change jobs, I heard the same refrain over and over again: “But that doesn’t sound like you.”“Are you sure this will make you happy?”“You’ve been there so long—why leave now?” People couldn’t understand why I was willing to walk away from a role I had held for years. To them, the job title, the institution, and the stability defined who I was. But what they didn’t see was that I  had changed—quietly, slowly, and steadily—while trying my best to stay loyal to expectations...

A recent family trip reminded me that even the best-laid plans—and the clearest visions—don’t always go the way we expect. And sometimes, that’s exactly what we need. Every year, my daughters, my mom’s best friend (who has long since become an honorary grandmother in our family), and I take an annual amusement park trip. Over the years, we’ve alternated between some of the major theme parks in Florida, collecting memories and laughter along the way. This year started like the others—with a...

I was recently listening to a new song where the singer describes how this unnamed person’s obsession with her is “actually romantic”—that she views the attention as flattering. It’s written about a broken relationship, which migh be friendship or romantic. As I listened, I couldn’t help hearing it differently. The theme of being seen, judged, and defined by someone else’s fixation felt strikingly familiar to another kind of relationship: the ones we navigate at work. In medicine, and...