Lives Within Lives

Yesterday I was showing some friends pictures of the spleen that I removed last week. Jason commented that I have this whole other life from the one that they know me in. It's true, but as I thought more about it I realized that everyone does. It's not that we're all paranoid and super secretive, though I will admit that there are parts of myself I protect from everyone but a very few. I think that it's simply that we need to be so many types of ourself to navigate the world. I have my lab-time life and my work life and my life at home with Tony and our friends and family. I like taking of my doctor face at the end of the day. Whether I like putting it on is another issue entirely. Anyhow, Tony has home life and art director life. I know that my friends also have their own lives that don't necessarily intersect with mine and it's easy to forget in our interactions that they go off and do these amazing and interesting things. I feel really lucky when I can hear the stories later. Even if the stories don't involve spleens.