Read on Twitter
#ASH20 day 1. Loved seeing everyone's tweets about the meeting today as everyone spends time supporting their colleagues, congratulating presenters, and retweeting amazing science. This is science and the hematology field at its best! How about my day? Mini-THREAD
1. I spent most of my day shutting my kids around to the last COVID-allowed things on their calendar (one sporting activity, one academic), going to 2 grocery stores and Costco to find what we needed, and taking our puppy outside so he could enjoy fresh air and other dogs.
2. I did not watch a full session today until tonight's awards ceremony (which was fantastic), and mostly got my fill of ASH from twitter, from slack messages from my lab about cool science, and from some emails where people asked my thoughts on specific presentations.
3. All of that was done on my laptop, using my cell phone as a hotspot, in the front seat of my car.
4. Why do I share this? I am really excited to see everyone in their awesome home setups watching ASH, wearing red, and showing love for all ASH has to offer. But for many of us, we had other obligations.
5. Today was not that day for me. Knowing that the content is recorded, and that I can watch it over the next 2 months (including winter break since I am not going anywhere!)
6. I've got a list of talks, abstracts, and sessions that I am going to watch, and I keep adding to it. Its a different way to take in a meeting but I am going with this approach this year, and I know I am not the only one.
7. I miss the in person science, the interactions at posters, the Q/A in live sessions, and most importantly the casual interactions (scheduled and unscheduled) with old friends, new collaborators, trainees (my own and ones I meet for the first time), and my lifelong mentors
8. But the virtual meeting allows each of us to Choose our Own Adventure (remember those books @codiesteensma). I encourage everyone to do ASH THEIR WAY, and to fit in as much hematology into their incredibly busy, pandemic-crushed schedule that they can.
9. Moreover, twitter during ASH is an amazing crowd sourcing opportunity, and I am drinking from that firehose. Keep telling people about sessions you loved, people you admire, and things that make you go "wow"
10. I have more time for "live" content tomorrow, and I've got tentative social plans the next 2 nights to "see" close friends and connect. But even that will depend on how my kids' homework (including teenager's precalculus test prep) is going.
11. Being a physician, scientist, nurse, pharmacist, hematology expert, etc.. is really hard in normal times, and hard to balance with our lives outside hematology. The $% pandemic took it all and put it in a blender and mixed it up without warning
12. Everyone please be safe, and enjoy the meeting however you can, on your terms and schedule. And if it means you watch ASH sessions while riding a bike, or holding a puppy, or doing a headstand->own it and tell us all about it.
13. Let's keep the awesome, info-packed ASH Twitter stream coming, and keep it going for 3 months as people take in more and more content. Support each other, promote the science, and let's make this virtual meeting an experience like no other.
14. And if you are so inclined, end one night with amaretto on the rocks (not endorsing alcochol!), a nightcap tip I learned from the best @leonard_zon
