This one, brief moment opened me up to the greatest sense of appreciation; regardless of the treatment arm, role, or results, it is the journey we embark on together, side by side with our participants, teams, and peers, that will contribute to our greater collective knowledge, advances in care, and a better future.

Vanita R. Aroda, director of diabetes clinical research at Brigham and Women's Hospital and associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, reflects on how acting as a clinical trial investigator has changed her approach to life.

The essay read in this episode was published in the Teaching and Learning Moments column in the November 2022 issue of Academic Medicine. Read the essay at academicmedicine.org.