Each year during the Canadian Residency Matching Service application and selection process for anesthesia training positions, medical students are asked the familiar question, ‘‘Why do you want to be an anesthesiologist?’’ This could be a difficult question to answer, as many medical students will have had only brief exposure to clinical anesthesia, and most applicants will not appreciate what the specialty is really like in practice. In this issue of the Journal, several articles examine this subject. Khan et al., and O’Leary and Murphy in their accompanying editorial, determine the factors that influence career choices in anesthesia, including finding an area that engages the ‘‘spirit’’ and having the right mentor (whether by traditional model or peer-peer mentorship). Given the recognized importance of mentorship, Zakus et al. take this subject a step further by evaluating whether our anesthesia residency programs provide formal mentorship opportunities. They find, possibly unsurprisingly, that the provision of a formal mentorship program is associated with a greater likelihood of receiving support. For most students, the major factors influencing their choice of anesthesia as a career include the challenge of managing critically ill patients, the clinical application of physiology and pharmacology, the ‘‘handson’’ nature of the specialty, as well as the impact of positive role models. In my own experience, important factors in my decisionmaking were the role models who gave their time to show me the special talents that anesthesiologists possess. After becoming a physician, I spent my first year in both the medical and surgical wards of two large community hospitals where I had direct responsibility for many acutely ill patients and those with uncontrolled pain. It became obvious to me through management of these patients that the anesthesiologist was often called upon to manage critical situations where others had failed. I was inspired not only by the skill and compassion of these colleagues but also by their patience and composure. By the end of my first year, I had decided that I wanted to be an anesthesiologist, and it was the impact of these inspirational future colleagues that brought me into this specialty. Many of my colleagues have had similar experiences; however, like many senior medical students, when I chose anesthesia as my specialty, I had a limited idea of what the profession was really like in practice. So now, 22 years later and as head of one of the larger departments of anesthesia in Canada, I think I finally understand what it means to be an anesthesiologist! Anesthesia is a very short name for one of the most holistic medical specialties with exposure to almost all clinical areas in a hospital setting, including the obvious perioperative functions. Furthermore, the specialty also incorporates specific expertise in the management of critically ill patients and those with intractable acute, chronic, and often cancer-related pain. In my decades of C. J. L. McCartney, PhD (&) Department of Anesthesia, The Ottawa Hospital, The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, B311, Ottawa Hospital, Civic Campus, Ottawa, ON, Canada e-mail: cmccartney@toh.on.ca URL: http://www.colinjlmccartney.com