10/10/2026
Dr. Jessica Chandler's dare sounds simple: she wanted to practice gynecology only. No delivering babies.
Outside medicine, that may not sound like a big deal.
Inside medicine, it was.
OB-GYNs are trained to do both. You deliver babies. You take call. You build your life around the reality that babies come when they come.
Jessica watched surgeons she admired schedule inductions the night before a surgery day, hoping they could slip away to deliver a baby between operations.
Most doctors who stop delivering babies make that switch 20 or 25 years in, close to retirement.
Jessica knew in her second year of residency. She loved surgery. She loved gynecology. She didn't want to build her life around labor and delivery.
But she wasn't seeing anyone do what she wanted to do.
So she asked herself:
"Why do I have to wait 20 years to do the thing that I enjoy?"
Her dare wasn't loud or reckless. It was deliberate.
She finished her OB-GYN residency. She went after a gynecologic surgery fellowship. She made a deal with her program director to meet her obstetrics requirements. Then she built a practice around the work she actually wanted to do.
The "normal" path isn't wrong.
It just may not be yours.
What's one "normal" path you followed, even if it didn’t feel right, because it was expected?