Dear Dr. X.,

I am writing even though you will never see this letter.

I am writing because in the trauma room of the hospital you trained me at, you taught me to be an Emergency Physician.  You took me, you molded me, you showed me how to teach and how to be taught.

You helped me reach a strength inside of me that I knew was there but couldn’t always grasp.

You took my weak, and made it strong.

Watching you work so hard to save the lives of some of life’s worst people, showed me how to turn off the judgement, and turn on the medicine.

Working side by side with you on a 14 year old gang member, shot in the torso, you guiding my hands to compress his heart inside the open chest, that made me grow.  Finally giving up and letting go, you telling me to let go – that taught me that often, all we can do is let go.

So Dr. X., thank you for guiding me to strength.

Thank you for not being easy on me.

Thank you for all the support, a hand in the small of my back in the worst of traumas.

I still feel that hand every day.