Piles of Paper and Mountains of Gratitude

Can you tell that it's my mini-vacation right now (break between summer and fall quarter, and relatively few shifts at work), and I actually have time to do things like blog? And sleep, and read, and hike, and breathe? Yeah, it's awesome. Today, I decided to do something not especially fun or crazy or festive, but highly necessary, namely organize the insanity that is my desk. Seriously, why do I have so much stuff? Especially so many papers? What are they? Where did they come from? Why did I ever think that keeping 90% of them was even remotely a good idea? I've been working on it for over two hours and still have barely made a dent.

But anyway . . . that's not the point. The point is . . .

While cleaning, I found two lovely letters from friends that I'd forgotten I had. I read through them again, and was freshly touched by them. One was a Christmas card, and one was a just-because letter, and both were full of kind words and affection. Both letters made reference to me someday becoming a "world-famous doctor," which meant a lot to me. To be honest, I'm sure I'll never be world famous, and I'll be perfectly happy just to be a clinically skilled doctor who makes a real difference to her patients and is pleasant to work with as a colleague. But it is absolutely wonderful to be reminded that people who are important to me believe I can accomplish my goals. There's so many days when I don't believe it myself -- the days I screw up, oversleep, don't study enough, don't score high enough, don't feel like I'm trying hard enough, etc . . . that hearing (well, reading, actually) someone else say, unprompted, that they think I can do this, just makes me so happy.

And it's not just the two people who wrote those letters, either. I have so many people in my life who believe in me and support me, and I am so grateful for that.

Thank you for your faith in me, guys. I will do my best to never disappoint you.

*Hugs*

Good Week :)

First of all, I fail at updating regularly. But I've had a really fantastic week and I wanted to gush about it over the internet a little.

Probably the best thing that happened this week was that I got a really good grade on my first physics exam . . . to be honest, it was one of the best science grades I've gotten in college. I usually try not to be a huge grade-bragger, mostly because the stuff I tend to get really brag-worthy grades in is stuff that comes easily to me (foreign languages, writing papers, the parts of science I happen to really "get" just by hearing about them the first time, etc.). Usually, in my pre-med classes, I feel like I'm busting my ass just to stay enough ahead of the curve to come out with a decent grade. But for this test, I worked really hard, invested a lot of time, and it payed off. And that makes me really happy.

Secondly, I found out this week that the scribe company I work for (my ER job) is starting a pilot program at First Hill, one of the Swedish campuses in Seattle. They're sending a few scribes over there to work with doctors and hopefully convince them that they want to pay to use scribes regularly, and I get to go! I'm really excited, and hopefully I will successfully impress the doctor . . . maybe I'll bake him brownies or something? Baking brownies is kind of my fallback plan for any situation that arises in my life.

Thirdly, I got a car! A 1993 burgundy Ford Taurus, that I have named Rufus. Rufus's two main virtues are that he runs, and that he was cheap. His main deficits are that his windshield is badly cracked (but even if you add in what it'll cost to get that fixed, he was still cheap), that he has leather interior (I don't believe in leather), and that the guy who owned him before me was apparently not a big fan of respiratory health, so he smells like cigarette smoke. But I drive with the window down, and I'm getting the interior cleaned ASAP, which will hopefully resolve that issue. I am so happy to have a car! Can we talk about taking the bus to the ER in Issaquah? And back? After 10:00 at night? Actually, never mind, let's not.

Tomorrow, Rufus and I are leaving for the Lake Quinault Lodge for the weekend, because my Aunt Marion and her fiance Mark are getting married on Saturday! They're getting married in the rainforest (yes, Washington has a rainforest, because we are rad), and everyone's dressing up in the theme of "Woodland Magic." I'm pretty excited. I'll post pictures when I get back.

Also, fall, especially in Seattle, especially on the UW campus, is gorgeous. That is all.

Photo from biggarphotography.com