It’s so important to remember that anesthesiology is a living, not a life. My mother once wondered if anesthesia is something that people had a lot of fun with in their spare time and advised that it was perhaps a good idea to keep up my outside interests and activities. Since most things in life benefit from a balancing test, we asked our authors and editors to tell us about their own backgrounds and life journeys and how they combined anesthesiology with the priorities in their lives outside the OR and hospital. We were delighted when the essays and personal photos started arriving with words of wisdom on how our colleagues managed their family and home lives and outside interests at various stages of their careers. For instance, we were intrigued that Nee Dalal negotiated a planned move for her family by telling her husband, “I’m open to considering any location, as long as it has at least a million people.”