Monday, March 27, 2006

Though I hadn’t exactly fallen off the face of the earth this past week, it almost felt like it. Starting Tuesday and ending an astonishingly long 5 days later on Sunday, I attended our Academy Annual Meeting. By the latter half of the week I functioned in nothing short of auto-pilot mode, only able to respond to minimal command and action. Each day consisted of 6-7AM meetings and agendas that lasted long through the afternoon and evening, after which there was a “voluntary” dinner and cocktail hour (voluntary in quotes of course, because this was probably the most important segment of the day that would facilitate the networking process immensely), which would last until midnight or so, depending on the amount of alcohol consumed and topic of conversation at hand.

By the fourth day of aching feet, general weariness, and sleep deprivation, I crazily followed through on my 5K race obligation to support Arthritis funding, as part of the Orthopaedic initiative this year. I’m not exactly sure at what point in time waking up at 5 o’clock to do a sunrise run up a frigid Lake Shore Drive sounded like a good plan, and whether I was lucid at the time, but overall it was a great experience, minus the frostbite and chilled-air lung syndrome. But, as I was crossing that finish line I felt a great sense of accomplishment, despite weather condition and time.

The actual meeting consisted of instructional course lectures that would provide CME’s (continuing medical education) for physicians, symposia, paper presentations, and both scientific and technical exhibits. Also, this meeting serves as a forum for individual committee meetings to take place, of which I am responsible for three. The degree of stress and nervousness that I encountered beforehand was exponential at times, being that two of the committees I had never met with in person, and had only corresponded with via phone and e-mail. But notwithstanding the fear and trepidation, they proceeded fairly well, though I definitely did note a certain air of distinction in the room, as I was more often than not both the youngest as well as the only female. I am beginning to understand that the sense of being inconsequential is a mountain I will have to climb, one short stride at a time.

By the welcomed turn of Sunday, most of the original 30,000 people attending had cleared out and Academy staff were able to tie up loose ends and pack up for home by early afternoon. All in all, though thoroughly exhausted, I was pleased with the way the meeting proceeded, and look forward to next year in San Diego. Not that staying at The Drake directly on the Magnificent Mile wasn’t wonderful; I saw and experienced more of this beautiful city than I ever have, and it was unparalleled, however, it’s good to be home, and back to the general routine.

posted by Sheila @ 3/27/2006 12:17:00 PM

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