Yesterday, I turned 37.

Exactly 7 days ago, I finished my fellowship training in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine (a.k.a. Neonatology). Woah.

I’ve taken a brief hiatus for the first time since 2020 over the last few weeks from writing on this blog, because life hit with a ton of other overwhelming tasks simultaneously, and the break was likely necessary. But, now we’re here, and I’m back.

It took me 26 grades to become the person writing this today. It took me 14 years of post-highschool education to learn enough to just start understanding the complex world of bebes and the limits of our science and technology to care for them. Some people have asked if I considered other paths, No. Many people have asked if I think it was worth it, Probably. And, most people have asked me, would you do it again? Absolutely.

So, why did it take so long? And, why do I feel the position I’m in is such a privilege of understanding? Why are my where I’m at and how do i separate from others that take more abridged paths to similar standpoints or decide it may be not be ‘worth’ the time? Those, are the questions, I think, that have driven some of the changes in Fellowship Training length discussions among the American Board of Pediatrics as well as pushed many away from Medicine, Pediatrics and Neonatology individually and together.

So, I write this particularly for those that have not wandered lost down this path that I have chosen. Results vary and journeys are different for everyone, but this was mine. I write this knowing that there are currently, as of 2026, less than 5500 physicians in the United States that can call themselves Neonatologists. This is what it took, and this is why my eyes and my brain synapses see the world through a web untangled. Truthfully, as silly as it sounds, my favorite movie is The Matrix (yeah yeah, the one that came out in 1999), and I thought it’d be cool to be a Neonatologist, purely so i could say that I am the “Neo.” But the larger more serious allusion to this, is that in the movie, Neo (Keanu Reeves), gets to a point in which he can see between the lines that create the world he exists in. This, is why I went to school for so long, and this, is also why I continue on the journey of life-long learning, regardless of being directly in academia or more on the outskirts of normalcy doing Locum Tenens.

• [2004-2007: Sacramento, California] Jesuit High School – Here I learned perspective, I learned about leadership for the first time and was embodied with the concept of being a “man for others” although I am not quite religious anymore. This is where Ms. Yang would have us come in for hours of extra study for AP Biology and I discovered I liked and was good at science. I did track and field (pole vault!) and was awful at it, but it taught me perseverance. I had teachers that forced and also allowed me to think open-mindedly, to question what the world meant and to challenge the ideas that I was presented. I took AP Spanish and passed, i was near fluency.
  
• [2007-2011: San Diego, California] University of California, San Diego – Here I began to understand the world at the molecular level. I received a B.S. in Human Biology and also a Minor in HealthCare and Social Issues. I began to interpret and dissect the US Health Care System and understand that the root of the problems was far deeper than political division and based in history – something I find hard to explain to most people, so I just keep my mouth shut. I took ballet and contemporary dance classes, I studied Italian for almost 2 years. In May of 2010, right before my Junior Year finals, my Father (a cardiologist) died from a heart attack.
  • [2011-2013] Intermission – I moved to Italy and became certified to teach English as a Foreign Language in Florence, Italy. My goal was to find a job, stay for a year, and try to focus on fluency… Unfortunately, that didn’t work out and I came back to the US after only a short several weeks. I worked as a Pharmacy Technician and studied Russian while spending my off nights Country Line Dancing.
    
• [2013-2017: New Orleans, Louisiana] Tulane University School of Medicine – Here I began to understand the human body. I took the scientific basis I had and began to zoom out from the nuanced fine print to understand the paragraphs that composed health. I lived, worked, and breathed the quaint underserved feelings of a broken infrastructure and a damaged city. I fell in love with Pediatrics, I loved the idea of a clean slate. I also ran an instagram for a coffee shop and inspired a community of patrons to bring in their own “Coffee Lid Art.” My 4th year of medical school, I did an “Away Rotation” at St. Jude’s in Memphis, TN… I thought I wanted to be a Pediatric Oncologist. I also had the opportunity to study Culinary Medicine and even participated in an exchange program with Johnson and Wales University in Providence, RI. Yes, I got to go to culinary school for a month, as a training doctor, it was great. I graduated, and I was all of a sudden, a Doctor.
  
• [2017-2020: Houston, Texas] UT Houston Pediatric Residency – Here I went from being a Doctor to becoming a Pediatrician. I began to understand how to speak the language of those that could not represent themselves. I learned to translate the words that were not said but felt and thought by children. I learned the depth that people would go for their children. I took the molecular basis of science I learned in San Diego, amplified it to the level of understanding the human body in New Orleans, and started to carve it into the specific sizes and shapes needed for children. I took care of and met a small baby born at 22 and 3 weeks of gestation at only 450 grams and watched her grow and eventually go home. I was inspired. Here I fell in love with intensive care, I fell in love with end of life palliation (continuing from my earlier training), but then, I graduated, felt incomplete, and wasn’t sure what to do, so I wandered.
  • [2020-2023] The Birth of The Nomadic Pediatrician – I tried but was unsuccessful in meeting the love of my life in Houston, so decided to wander. I became a full time Locum Tenens Physician and started the blog you’re reading right now. I wandered across 15 hospitals in 10 states and interacted with every community and culture in all variations of socioeconomic status. I worked with the Amish, I worked with those that were undocumented or those that crossed the border seeking help, I worked with the Native Tribes in the Great Plains, and I started to see through the barriers and find the connection that all humans have with each other. But, I knew I was meant for more, and remembering my little baby from Residency, I decided to go back to more training.
    
• [2023-2026: Kansas City, Missouri] Children’s Mercy Hospital Neonatal-Perinatal Fellowship – Here I went from being a Pediatrician to becoming a Neonatologist. Here, I learned about the limits of existence and the worth of challenging them or the times at which it was time to accept mortality. Here, I started to begin my understanding of the art of taking care of small and/or sick babies. Here, I rekindled my Purpose.

I have seen miracles and disasters, life and death, true love and the extent of human resilience and capacity. I have given up family, friends, love, stability and time. I have been lonely, rejected, ostracized, judged, misunderstood, and sad. I have found purpose and reason, direction and drive, curiosity and dreaming. I have saved lives, cured children and sometimes their families still don’t trust doctors or our recommendations (But really, why would I have gone through all of the above to con you? Like, get vaccinated, there, I said it. I don’t get paid for that, believe me, if I did, I woulda retired years ago). I have had parents cry to me, in happiness and in devastation. I have had parents trust and fire me, and I have felt the same. I have had a family call me the best and the worst. I held the hands of those that walked without anyone to hold them.

12 years primary and secondary school | California
4 years undergraduate college | California
4 years medical school to be a doctor| Louisiana
3 years residency to be a doctor becoming a pediatrician | Texas
3 years fellowship to be a pediatrician becoming a neonatologist | Missouri

So now, I’m here.
Twenty-six years later.
And it’s finally time, To Start.