I burned out as a physician some 15 years ago and never returned to practice. Did college and med school in 6 years, top of my class, probably the best internsh

I burned out as a physician some 15 years ago and never returned to practice. Did college and med school in 6 years, top of my class, probably the best internship and residency in the country. Got a combined academic and clinical position at one of the best multispecialty clinics in the U.S. but year after year, became more and more disillusioned. Patients would roll in with suitcases full of records - literal suitcases, resulting from countless consultations with other doctors. They would plop down on the sofa in my office with the expectation that in the span of a week, maybe two, I would make them whole again. Day after day after day. I would spend hours and hours with each patient, but the administration didn't see the value in that. Basically "can you do it all faster?" I spent all of this time honing diagnostic skills and my ability to communicate well with people, but what matters is the bottom line. I'd fill out institutional surveys that were aimed at figuring out the scope of burnout among the physician staff. But nothing ever changed. The final irony that precipitated my departure was that the guy running all of these burnout studies, a young junior faculty, used all of the resulting publications to leverage a cushy "Chief Wellness Officer" position at another academic medical centre. I was done. I left my practice. My colleagues thought I had taken a dive off the deep end. But in some way, I thought they were secretly a little envious. But if I've learned anything from this experience, it's that renewal can come in some of the most unexpected places. Just before quitting, my wife and I had a baby daughter. When she was three, we started her on Suzuki violin. Lo and behold, she was good at it. Eventually we decided to do homeschool, with me staying home to do the at-home teaching so that she could have time to practice. I became sort of the stage parent (in the best sense of the word!) Now, a decade later, she's 13 years old and is heading off to a full-time pre-conservatory program. If I hadn't been through the disastrous burnout, I would have been languishing there still and never saw the opportunity right in front of me. It also rekindled in me a deep love of music, to the point that now, I work as a collaborative pianist and coach chamber music groups in a local music academy. I'm not sure the hurt of burnout every completely goes away; to this day, people look at me and I'm sure are thinking "why would you throw away all that education?"