Eleni Miller has fond childhood memories. She filled her days building forts and digging in the sand under the warm Florida sun.
She’d ride her bike and play dress up, glittering in sequined Mardi Gras hand-me-downs and twirling like a ballerina. All the while, she dreamed of becoming a doctor. Now, as a pediatrician, she carries those memory gems to work each day. It’s fun, she says, and it keeps her young.
“I love working with kids because I feel like I’m still a little bit of a kid myself,” Eleni says. When her little patients come in dressed like Superman or a princess, she smiles. “It’s pretty fun to not have to let that part of yourself go in your everyday job.”
Spending time with her own daughters, ages two and five, reminds Eleni of how raising children can rival the lessons learned in medical school training. They’ve taught her the basics of potty training and how to convince a stubborn toddler to eat their vegetables. They’ve shown her that kids need boundaries—even if they act like they don’t want them—and the importance of staying calm when dealing with a defiant child. She understands, firsthand, the stress of managing constant phases of growth and change.
“I see my purpose as helping guide parents through a pretty difficult time,” Eleni says. It’s challenging trying to figure it all out yourself. “I’m trying to help and be a team member so they feel like I’m someone they can rely on—a trusted member of their village.”
Earning that trust sometimes looks like examining a young patient’s stuffed animal before the patient to put them at ease. Eleni lets babies hold her stethoscope before she listens to their heartbeats, and shines her otoscope light on the children’s fingers so they can see their digits glow red. The kids especially love it when she pretends to tickle them as she checks their lymph nodes.
Trust-building requires patience, kindness, and a willingness to listen to children and their parents—all qualities Eleni’s patients say she has in spades. One parent said, “My kid is always asking to visit the doctor because he loves the positive attention he gets from the team.”
That’s exactly the kind of doctor Eleni dreamed of being. In elementary school, she wrote a letter, pledging her path toward medicine. In high school, she volunteered at the local hospital. In college, her parents convinced her to get a degree in chemical and biological engineering. But that turned out to be a small detour. In medical school, she loved almost every specialty she tried during her rotations. She was fascinated by neurology and enamored with obstetrics. But when it came to pediatrics, she was sold. Kids just make everyday life pretty fun.
As she watches her patients develop from blinking their newborn eyes to getting ready for kindergarten, Eleni believes that the best part of her job is actually seeing them grow. She wants to help put them on the right trajectory so they live long, healthy lives—and realize dreams of their own.
Video by Bethany Burtch; Story by Amy Choate-Nielsen
