I grew up on a farm in Jay, Fla., a town so tiny that even its name is the shortest in the state. In this small farming community, I learned big lessons about kindness, discipline and service to others. I am descended from generations of farmers and farmers' wives, but none expected me to be a farmer. Instead my family's hard work in the field gave me a chance to pursue a different profession: medicine.

After graduating from the University of Florida College of Medicine, I became the first medical doctor on both sides of my family. My parents, paternal grandparents and maternal grandparents, all former farmers and farmers' wives themselves, were with me on the day I became what I had set out to be, a physician. Later, I completed a general psychiatry residency and a child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship, both at Emory University School of Medicine. I am board certified in both general psychiatry and child and adolescent psychiatry. As I see patients, it is helpful for me to remember that my medical knowledge and expertise may have been taught to me in medical school, but my work ethic and my desire to help others? Well, that was grown on the farm.