Doctor Gretchen Moves to New Zealand

For the last five weeks, I have been sorting through the contents of our cabinets, boxes and containers, determining the value the items inside have to us, people we know and the world in general. The bottom line? We have a lot of stuff. I'm ashamed of none of it and only regret not working this kind of analysis into our calendar more often prior to today. (That was a recommendation to you, dear friend! Heed it before you decide to pull up roots and move halfway around the world!) I'm rediscovering fantastic long-lost tokens and projects and ridding our home of the meaningless stuff we "may need someday."

At dinner, Rick and the kids and I talk about our big move and the questions we have about life in New Zealand. Smith asked recently if there were dental floss sticks (flossers) there. Dunno. I've read their ketchup is not the same as our ketchup. The realization that nothing that plugs into the wall here will plug into the wall there was jarring at first, but t…

In March 2017, I was a bigwig at a big, fancy financial firm in St. Paul, Minnesota. I had left clinical medicine six years prior because of the growing mountain of bureaucratic hassles involved with taking care of people. I had dabbled in medical media and found that while I did not enjoy the game of television, I did get a lot of satisfaction out of explaining medicine to non-physicians. I landed the job at the financial firm in 2011 and I thought "Why not?" Over the first four years in that job, the way medical information is used to determine the cost of financial products was taught to me by experts. I analyzed cases and reports and presented scientific conclusions intended to improve the business and increase profits. My performance was rewarded with a promotion to Chief. It all seemed natural at the time, but very quickly, as the time I had for case review dwindled and the administrative tasks increased, I hated my job.

I didn't know I hated it. I knew performance…