stellar day

This is my friend Alex. We went to Muhlenberg (my undergrad) together, and at first, we couldn't stand each other - for the entire first year, pretty much. And here we are, 10 years later (can you believe it's been that long since we started undergrad?), I was one of her bridesmaids, and we're still in touch. She was in town for a couple days, and we met for coffee. Good times. 

Today.....today was a very, very, very good day. Most of my days at MSKCC are good. But today, I got to see one of my good friends from Muhlenberg and catch up a bit, and then in the afternoon, I went to the main hospital to listen to a lecture by Rosabeth Kanter. She is a chair at Harvard Business School, written 17 books, and was named one of the "50 Most Powerful Women in the World". She lectured on confidence and becoming a good leader, and she was excellent. It was only an hour and a half lecture, but she was so dynamic and had so many good points - like it's not the talent that matters in an organization, but the talent in the team. If a company has stars in its department, that's great, but a true star who is committed to advancing the team will mentor others, and work with everyone else, and not seek solely their own advancement. That's how I feel my experience at MSKCC has been. I've gotten the impression that the attendings are very eager to help and mentor. Another one of her points was that confidence is simply the expectation of a good outcome. But in order to achieve that outcome, you have to do the work. She used MSKCC as an example. MSK is one of the top cancer centers in the world, and many people here have an abundance of confidence. But they've done the hard work to get here, and continue to do the hard work - the reading of journals, the attending of conferences, of mentoring students and researchers, of pushing their limits - which reinforces their confidence, because they expect a good outcome. And success breeds success. But my favorite thing of all that she said was this: If you look at anything in the middle, it looks like failure. If you look at anything in the middle of doing it, it can look like you're failing - you're not getting the results you wanted, you're failing a test, you're not accepted to the program you want - but you haven't reached the end yet, unless you give up. So true, and we often forget that. I know I do. 

AND, sitting just 3 seats to my left was Eugenie Obbens. She is a neuro-oncologist, and one of her specialties is meningiomas, or slow-growing, "benign" brain tumors. I've read about her, and here she was, next to me!

The only thing that shatters dreams is compromise. - Richard Bach 

High Point: seeing Alex, getting free bagels and pastries from Starbucks

Low Point: paying over $5 for one box of Smart Start cereal