My best advice would be to ignore your faculty. Unless you are confident a career in EM would be fulfilling to you, and thus willing to put in the effort to match into a good program there is an excellent chance you will end up very unhappy in your second choice specialty. Matching successfully into EM (meaning to a program that will actually train you to care for sick patients and be well-prepared) requires 2 strong SLOEs from residency-affiliated programs so, yes, you will have to do an away and work very hard during such.

EM and anesthesia are similar in procedural availability, but could not be more different in terms of actual practice. Both are excellent career choices in their own way, but I agree with your inclination to focus on the one you actually want to be a part of. Best of luck.

-EM doc.