How I was beautifully emotionally ambushed by three medical students and @ewarren this week: a story.

I work with an amazing cohort of medical students on covid-related health services research. They have been working their tails off and over the past few weeks I've had a lot of guilt for their time put in, their willingness to pick up the most tedious of tasks.

The latest task was data validation on six months of data across 17 study sites. That's about as scintillating as it sounds. Taking thousands of data points and updating them to ensure consistency and completeness. And doing this work in between rotations and child care.

So yesterday when @chrishext, @sarahjonewhall and Diana Ko wanted to "show me what they've been working on," I figured it was a review of data validation. Showed up for the call in my usual "sorry I've only got a few minutes" mode. Did register that they seemed very... smiley.

It turns out in addition to all the research work, they'd pursued a side project. They'd reached out to Elizabeth Warren's staff and conspired to create.... this:

Me expecting data validation discussion:
Me receiving unexpected personal message from @ewarren:
Me remembering Elizabeth Warren lost her brother to Covid and is here promising to support me:
Me thinking of the work that went into this gift:

THANK YOU Chris, Sarah, Diana! THANK YOU Senator @ewarren! THANK YOU magical Warren staffers! I could not be more floored or grateful.