Too Close to Call

Having been in the thick of the conference for the last six days, there was no lack of inspiration, occasional exasperation (like with the gender inequity deniers in HOD), indignation (at the data presented in the excellent talk about those same disparities, at which of course the deniers were notably absent), emotion (Patrick Killeen's exhilarating opening, and participating in a very moving salute to new President Robert Wooten), and euphoria (seeing the amazing twitter traffic, and getting almost 900 page views of this blog!).

Friggin' amazing conference.

Before we cut out on Saturday, I ran head long into one of the most special moments of the conference. I took a speaking workshop, and there was a PA there who felt intimidated by the class setup, and who wanted to leave. The instructors and organizer talked her down, and she reluctantly stayed. We had to give a little presentation about a topic of our choice, and she was super nervous, but she did it. She talked about the obstacles she faced in going back to PA school, as a single mom with kids. We had to describe the intended audience of our talk, and hers was women thinking of coming back into the employment fray. And when she ended her talk with an understated "if I can do it, so can you," I just about started crying. This was partly because I was worn out from the week with little emotional reserve remaining, but it was more related to how much she inspired me at that moment, how real she was, how brave she was for having stayed in the workshop against her urge to flee, and to have gone back to face the tough challenge of PA school.

My wife and I are back in Seattle, but our heads are still half in Las Vegas. We're already buzzing about Toronto, about possible ideas for talks, posters, collaborations, and about how fantastic the social media scene was this year.

I go back to work tomorrow, but I'll carry the excitement of Impact11 with me, and I know it's going to make my work even more meaningful, knowing that I'm part of such an awesome community. I'm still too close to the experience to fully describe and understand it, and look forward to more insights as a I process it over the next few weeks.

To those of you who I met, you rock! To those I saw again, you rock too! Now let's go get em, we've got some lives to save!

Jim Anderson PA-C
@jimeddypa