Wednesday, March 18, 2009

So more big news (it seems like for the past year, my life has been one "big news" after another).

First of all, Mikhail was accepted the other day into the Astrophysics department at McMaster, meaning that now, officially, we can plan to move in together after the honeymoon in August. It's definitely very exciting; it means I finally get to pull out my IKEA catalogue again and tag pages of furniture to match my white and red apartment color scheme. It also means that in my "spare time" I can apartment shop for a new loft or 2 bdrm place nearby and fill the registry with more "household" items. It's also much of a relief...it assures us that we'll be together for the next two years. It was a decision we'd made a while ago, the one to be together, but it's nice to have confirmation that things are working out to move us closer together. Astrophysics has been a bit of a career switch for Mikhail, from fusion energy to black holes, but it's probably something that'll be much more fun. I can let him tell you guys about that part.

Secondly, I'm going to Uganda in July with a team of med students from Mac. I'll be there for a month working obs/gyn, internal medicine, surgery. There are about 16 of us in total from my class, not all of us going at the same time. We'll be spread out over at least three different hospitals - two in Kampala, the capital city, and one in Mbarara near the Rwandan border. I'm aiming to go to Mbarara...and not just because it's close to the greatest national parks in all of Africa! I also mean to help people, really.
It's finally happening though; going on medical missions to Africa has always been my dream. And I'm sure it won't be exactly as I've dreamed, or even close, but it'll be one of those life-changing experiences both career-wise and character-wise. I guess I'm feeling a whole mix of things, all of elation, excitement, anxiety, apprehension and contentment all rolled into one. The last, contentment, just because everything's now falling into place. My pursuit of medicine, moving out, the wedding, my future husband's career. We've both received scholarships, his for Astro and mine for Uganda; God is taking care of us.

Not to say that med school is a breeze. It has definitely been (and is still/will be) a struggle balancing the amount of time I have my head in my laptop with the time I have a stethoscope around my neck with the time I have to myself, sleeping, hanging out with friends, talking to my fiancé. But it's that slow lesson that all (future) doctors need to learn: that you'll never know everything about medicine, or be able to help everyone you want to help; someday I hope to get close to being right at balancing all the right things in life.

But now the clock is ticking and I need to cook dinner, organize my notes, pay my bills, take a shower and learn all there is to know about chronic renal failure before I go to bed tonight. Maybe my beloved fiancé will be the next to post.