Year's End

In less than four hours, 2009 will become but a memory (to use the melodramatic albeit beautiful cliche). It somehow doesn't seem real. I remember fighting to stay up till midnight in 1999 (my whole family was battling a nasty post-Christmas bug that year), toasting with bleary eyes and sparkling cider (or was it milk?), and heading to bed. It doesn't seem a decade ago. And to look back, I was 12 at the time, in junior high...I've come a long way since then, no? We all have.

In many ways, I am sorry to see 2009 conclude. The year was surreal in so many ways, incredible in many others, and also challenging. I began the year with some of my best friends in Massachusetts, outrunning snowstorms. I immediately traipsed to NY, interviewed at a medical school, and cemented a friendship with an amazing woman that has since been a stabilizing and powerful part of my life. It's a sign of the year to come. Including airports, I was in at least 13 states. I was gone half the weekends of the semester and flew somewhere nine months of the year. I presented my own research at a conference. I interviewed at four medical schools (one was in 2008), was accepted to four and in the upper half of the wait list at the fifth. I graduated valedictorian of my class (which still seems like a dream, seven months later). I was in Hawaii, Cambodia, and Trinidad. I've seen things and met people who have substantially changed my life. I am so blessed.

Although the year started out amidst incredible uncertainty and tremendous academic challenges, on Easter a dream became a reality, and I have been living that dream ever since. I am so grateful to have been able to see just how much love and support I have from so many people--I know most aren't afforded that gift. It's so exciting to think what 2010 has in store for me. I will spend more than half the year finishing my time in Trinidad, and who knows what more growth and challenges will come out of that. And in August, I start medical school so that I can truly do what I love for the rest of my life, and maybe even change the world. I know at this point next year though, it will be I laughing at how the world changed me (thank you Dar Williams for the line). It will be incredible, and heartbreaking, challenging, and inspiring. Bring it on!