Graduation

I wanted to thank everyone for their congratulations on my graduation. This is truly a special time for me, a time mixed with both joy and tears. Joy that I have reached my ultimate dreams and that my family was there to share it with me. Tears that I am telling my friends good-bye as we each take a new path separated by many many miles. The last four years have included some of the most special of my life. The day I delivered my first baby…and then 15 minutes later delivered my second. The day I got a 100 on a quiz in surgery (yes it does rank almost as high as the babies). Also some of the hardest and most challenging….the day I had to tell a mother her child had a brain tumor, the day I sat with an AIDs patient and told him I’m sorry but there wasn’t anything else we could do for him, the day that I called the son of my patient telling him to come quickly, his mother had taken a turn for the worse and then to wait for him to tell him that she had passed before he arrived.

And then my classmates…..they married, they had babies. They lost their parents. One was diagnosed with cancer and another lost their child. We stood together, all of us going through the same battles of being medical students, the lowest man on the totem pole and at the same time doing everything in our power to help one another when something awful happened. We laughed together, we cried togerher. We stayed up all night studying together. We comforted those that didn’t match at their first choice program. And yesterday, for one final moment, we became doctors together.

So here I am, the day after. Everyone asks “how does it feel Dr?” Well ummm Dr. it doesn’t quite fit yet. I still have so much to learn. I was a student on Saturday and now on Monday I’m the doctor? With all the responsibility that comes along with it? WOW….what a difference a day makes! How do I feel? I’m excited, I’m honored, I’m priveleged and I HAVE SO MUCH TO LEARN!!!! I also feel sadness and a since of longing for what I am saying farewell to. What an amazing 4 years these have been! Perhaps the greatest 4 years of my life.

It is time for the next chapter of my life to begin. As scary as it is, I have no doubt that the next 3 years will continue to shape and mold me into the calm, compassionate, dedicated physician that I aim to be. May I also remember that being a doctor is an honor and a privilege, never a right.