Time Softens the Heart

I have taken a shower with a water bottle. I didn't go into the bathroom with the intention of doing that, but halfway through lathering up with soap, the lights went out and the water shut off. I was thrust into basically pitch blackness (there was no window in our bathroom) and the first word that came to my mind can't be published in a public forum. I found the emergency water bottles we kept by the bathtub (since this had occurred to my roommate on another occasion) and as I sparingly used them to get the soap off, I hated life. I hated my decision to go to the Caribbean for medical education. I SWORE I would never return to that retched "rock" lest hell freeze over AND pigs fly on earth.

But time has a funny way of taking memories like that and turning them into a very comic recollection in the mind. Family always used to tell me to appreciate the opportunity I was given to "live in a beautiful tropical place". Opportunity?!?! I used to think incredulously. YOU try come living in this place while simultaneously trying to cram macro amounts of information in micro amounts of time. Because while my power and water go off regularly, you are frolicking around in the resorts when you come to visit me, with their fancy schmancy generators and water tanks.

Despite this, I now find myself at the end of my medical school career. God willing on July 21 I will receive my passing score and a few short weeks after that, I will officially be Doctor A. And for those of you with the insight to have known 4 years ago where this very blog post is going - yes, I want to go back to the island. Now, I'm a practical person so I don't want to just visit St. Martin. When I spend money to travel, I like to see places I haven't yet been. So again, for those of you with insight four years ago to disagree with me when I said I not only hated St. Martin but the whole of the Caribbean, yes you were right again and I was wrong. I would love to go lay on the warm beach, frolic in the warm, calm Caribbean sea, and doze off to the sound of steel drums while sipping on a fruity Caribbean drink.

I indeed had the opportunity to live in paradise.

Video produced by AUC filmmakers recently. Some of my favorite places are shown. Enjoy!