The Bird in Flight

Now you might me wondering who is this cutie and why am I standing in a picture with her? (nope, not that) Actually, this is an old friend of mine whom I ran into quite randomly, Shirley. I haven't seen her in easily 6-7 years now. I met her in college, where she was two years ahead of me. She has had more influence in my life than she knows; my college career was practically modelled after hers. We both majored in MCB and Econ, and in the end I followed her path into medicine.  About the only thing I didn't follow her lead in was singing (she has the voice of an angel, and I the voice of a sea otter). After she graduated from Berkeley and matriculated at UCSF, I lost touch with her, and thus was faced with the uncomfortable situation of having to make my own decisions about my future. Not so much fun.

It was awesome catching up. We compared med school experiences and such, and I got to hear what it was really like at UCSF (my dream school). Strangely enough though, I found myself all the more thankful that I had the priviledge of EVMS. I don't know if it was my fate to go out of state to attend med school, but I don't think I could've had a better med school experience. Nobody I've talked to outside of EVMS seems to have had such a tight community, amongst our class, our faculty, our administration even. I found myself telling her about the time Dan and I got Dr. McCombs let us take a picture of him in his black suit and plaid pants (discovering that even in the first month of school, he definitely knew my name and face), and about rounding with Dr. Esterowitz on internal medicine (and how she would round on MY note instead of the intern's, and how she would gently encourage us to never take things for granted, but instead research the best treatment), and other such stories of life at a tiny med school. (EVMS has its gunners and aloof faculty too, of course, although maybe a bit fewer and further between.) Amazing how things turn out sometimes.

I was amazed with the incredible serendipity of seeing Shirley again. Looking back on the photo though, I'm totally crowding into her space. Sorry!