When I was a family medicine resident (oh so many years ago!), a large part of autumn was spent interviewing candidates for the next year’s residency class. The applicants met with the program director, a faculty member and a current resident. We residents were pretty much given free rein to ask whatever we felt was important to assess whether the interviewee was a good fit for our program.

One of my pet questions was “If you were to describe yourself as a fruit or vegetable, which one would you pick and why?” (I don’t recall whether I made up this question myself or borrowed it from one of the interviews I suffered through on my way to residency. If it sounds like a ridiculous question to you, then I borrowed it.) I gave them the example that I might describe myself as a potato: many eyes (observant) and a staple of people’s diets (dependable, useful). I can’t really remember any of the answers I got from the candidates, but I know that I received some quizzical looks. Still, the question made them think and express themselves in a different way than their usual recitation of accomplishments. It also was a better question than the “How’s your love life?” I was asked by one residency director (who shall remain nameless but forever scorned) when I was in the hot seat. I don’t recollect my answer to that one, and I wish I could have seen the look on my face.

I’m not sure which fruit I would choose to describe myself now: a peach, a bit fuzzy about what I’m supposed to be doing–not sure whether I would be clingstone or freestone; a tomato, firm on the outside but spills a lot of guck when cut; a nut (no, not that kind), smooth on the outside and hard to crack but worth it to get at the meat inside? Or what vegetable: a carrot, growing down while looking healthy and lush on the surface; corn, tightly packed with so many kernels of possibility, some of which have come to fruition and others which never developed; a green bean–no, I’m not long and skinny, unfortunately.

What do you make of yourself, how do you describe yourself–as the positive qualities or the negative of your chosen fruit or vegetable? Why? Do you see yourself as needed to enrich and vitalize people’s lives?