Emma Nguyen

About

How long is this supposed to take? People ask me that early, usually with some impatience, having already given themselves a deadline that nobody else ever agreed to. There is no standard duration, which is unsatisfying and true. Being at a crossroads takes as long as it takes, and the people who move through it fastest are generally the ones who stopped demanding that it be quick. We work on both the decision and the impatience, because the impatience is often doing more damage than the uncertainty. Rushing something of this size tends to produce a decision you have to revisit later anyway. I was a researcher before I came into clinical work, and I retain an unfashionable fondness for saying I do not know when I do not know. You will get that honesty from me. If you have set yourself a deadline, come and let us examine whose it actually is.