It has often been said by persons of my generation that if you can’t remember the 1960s, you were there. Well, I was there in the early days of ACEP, and I vividly remember those times. I was able to watch those early leaders as they struggled with the issues that shaped who and what we are today. I’m thankful that I found a place not just to speak out but where mentors would educate me and encourage me to speak up. I know it sounds corny or prosaic, but that was and still is very cool. It was the only real Forrest Gump moment of my life, when I was present at the very beginning of an important part of medicine in establishing the first specialty whose foundation was built on what patients needed.

I’m thankful that I found a place not just to speak out but where mentors would educate me and encourage me to speak up.

ACEP and my state chapter mean much more to me on a personal level. I would like to say my career has been a smooth one with few bumps in the road. However, that has been far from the case. I have worked at hospitals that did not deserve or recognize the excellence of the physicians in their emergency department. I have worked for department chairs who were the antithesis of mentorship and did not support the physicians they were supposed to be leading. I have suffered through malpractice suits and, of course, my share of mistakes and being the centerpiece of a mortality and morbidity conference. Contrasting those experiences with others, I have had the extreme privilege of being an emergency physician for truly heroic patients whose courage and humanity were breathtaking, inspiring, and heartbreaking. However, like all emergency physicians, I have also experienced the opposite in patients or families whose petty crassness sucked the joy out of the interaction with them, leaving me saddened and cynical. I have felt the cold breath of burnout and came very close to losing my way.

Among the things that saved me in those dark times were ACEP and MCEP [the Michigan College of Emergency Physicians] as shining lights where I could rekindle the spark that led me to become an emergency physician in the first place. I have often said, “Get a few emergency physicians together from the same shop, and the conversation inevitably ends up devolving into a complaint session about their department, the hospital and its administration, the nurses, or the patients. However, go to a national meeting, the Council meeting, the Leadership and Advocacy Conference, your state chapter meetings, and various ACEP educational conferences and you’ll interact with physicians from many different practice environments.” The conversation elevates to a discussion of interesting cases, mistakes made, lessons learned, finding out that the things you have tripped over have also tripped up other good physicians. It is an opportunity to rekindle the flame and relight the furnace that underlies your love for emergency medicine.