What’s with the name?

Dr. Anne

A large part of my Watson project focuses on women mentoring, role-modeling and speaking up for other women. One of the most important role models in my life was my grandmother, Dr. Anne. A mother of three and the first woman surgeon to operate at Massachusetts General Hospital (she would insist on the order of those two phrases), she was a hilarious combination of the traditional and the utterly unconventional. She also gave me some of the best advice I have ever received.

One of those pieces of advice was “to use the corners in time.” The corners in time are those little moments, the pauses between tasks, between decisions, even between relationships- of all kinds. She urged me to hold on to those moments and use them productively by fixing something, or understanding something, or getting to know something or someone more deeply.

A year may seem too long to fit the above criteria. However, when viewed over the course of a lifetime a year as a Watson fellow becomes a corner in time- an undefined moment, a pause, in which extraordinary opportunities exist.