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23rd May 2006

Meme and graduation…

posted in Uncategorized |

Dear LJ

I am really, really getting tired of losing my pretty layout and settings. Sure it comes back eventually, but there’s a reason that I pay to have my pretty Anne picture as a header and the soft blues and greens that go so well together, because I like them better.

Fix it. I don’t care how. Or I will be making demands for repayment.

No love,
Julia

~*~

Dear CW network

You are morons. I hope you go bankrupted in two months. I will not be watching.

No love,
Julia

~*~

Dear Everwood

Can it be? You and I only have two more weeks together? *mourns* I shall miss you with your warm humor and delightful characters. However, may I offer one bit of advice? Perhaps if you didn’t have a cancer scare, a subdural hematoma that required surgical intervention (although injured!Bright was adorable), and a heart attack in one episode, we might be having a longer relationship together? Much as I love you, that was a little over the top. And I DON’T want to be crying at the finale, so everybody had better be alive and off to happy-ever-after-land, you got it?

Much love,
Julia

*****
From juno_magic:

Name ten of life’s simple pleasures that you like most (actually these will just be the 10 pleasures that strike me right now).

(I decided to forego the 6 facts about me, because I’ve been plugging away on the “100 random facts about me” meme that went around months ago and I don’t think I could come up with 106 different things about me!)


10. Red hair days, where my hair shines bright and deep and red and not just a generic shade of strawberry blonde.

9. Curling up in blankets, because the air conditioner is that good at cooling the room down.

8. A cup of rooibos tea slightly sweetened with Splenda. Sadly, this is not the real thing from South Africa, as that little package has still not arrived.

7. Letters and cards in the mail. *hugs Becka especially*

6. Holding hands. Brushing fingers over the shoulder to catch attention. Arm pressing against arm when sitting next to each other. Contact touches in general.

5. The silence of a warm spring night.

4. Long phone calls where we talk about nothing in particular.

3. Soft, chewy gummy bears. Seriously, there is not a better candy made. I could eat pounds (and have in my youth).

2. Lingering, full body hugs (I’m really not that fond of the side hug/squeeze). Even when they are hugs of farewell.

The number 1, best simple pleasure: Waking up and finding an email in my inbox from Chris in Taipei. 😀 😀 😀 Made. My. Day.

I’m doing much better today than yesterday. Yesterday was spent in tears (my contacts were well moisturized), and while there’s still this ache around my heart that clenches tightly whenever I remember, things continue on much as they did before. Things will be okay. I have survived long-distance friendships; some (like Sam and I) actually grew stronger and thrived through the distance.

*****
Thank you sooo much, all of you, for the congratulations. I’ve been too busy to properly acknowledge them (besides graduation, I’ve had a wedding to go to and 60+ surveys to do data entry for), but they warmed my heart and made me giddy. I still can’t wrap my mind around the fact that I have just gained two initials (or a new salutary address). Four years seemed like plenty of time to learn everything that I needed to now–now, I wish that med school was really 8 years long!

Graduation was a lovely affair, a truly fitting end to the four years of schooling.

My whole family came– mom, dad, my grandparents and aunt, even my youngest sister Laura who moaned and complained that the gas was too expensive (made me a wee bit annoyed, but that’s past now). The day did not start as I had intended, however. I woke up when my parents walked in the door–a half hour prior to when I was supposed to be there. Not good. I have never showered so fast, got dressed so fast (including the dreaded nylons), or done my hair so fast. I didn’t get to do my hair in curls as I had hoped, but this newish haircut is amazing–my hair always looks half way decent even just walking out the door straight from the shower.

We all stood outside in the rising heat, waiting to file inside and caught up with everybody. It was quite powerful, once we were sitting inside to look at the sea of red and black. Only four short years ago, I sat in that same auditorium with these same people and didn’t know a person. We had spent a week with each other, getting oriented to medical school, but basically being freaked out by the idea that we were actually here and that we were starting the real classes on Monday. That’s where I first met Chris (or where I first remember meeting him), mingling downstairs. We were both D’s and therefore right next to each other. I think we talked about how many Chrises there were in the class. And now–now, I know something, if not a lot of somethings about every person in my class. And Saturday was the last gathering of us all–one could hope that we’d all show up for the reunions, but that would be foolish.

We had an inspiring speech on how a person can make a great difference, especially doing international work, that got me all fired up. I don’t think my poor parents had any idea how serious I’ve become about doing international work after I finish my training.

The best part of the ceremony was the musical interlude. One of my classmates wrote and arranged a song for piano, violin, viola, and cello and then topped it off by singing it. He’s always been known as the class clown (although a more generous guy you won’t find), and this creative side had hardly even been hinted it. It was an amazing song that captured all of the heartache of medicine, the codependency that it fostered, and our fears for leaving and going on. I’m trying to get him to send me the lyrics–if I have success, I’ll post them here. I only barely managed to hold back the tears–I did not want to walk across the stage with black eye makeup smeared across my cheeks!

After the hooding (those things are HOT, as in temperature wise) and the conferring of degrees, I lingered afterwards to say goodbye to people. It was difficult, as expected, but overall more sweet than bitter. Of course, nobody could figure out my camera, so I didn’t get the pictures that I wanted–I did get the important ones though, which I’ll post next separately.

Afterwards, my family went down to my aunt and uncle’s. They hosted a great feast (I am so in love with spinach artichoke dip), and because they couldn’t come to the commencement and because my dad wasn’t able to walk in his graduation a couple of weeks ago (he got his masters in education), we held a mock commencement service there. My grandpa was the speaker; I, as the newest physician, presented my day with his diploma (Master and Commander of His Own Domain). It was amusing.

The funniest part of the day, was when I was sitting on the couch, talking to my family about how I would get my diploma mailed to me in a couple of weeks and that the large container that they gave me most likely had a generic “congratulations on your graduation!” sheet of paper. Out of idle curiosity and by my uncle’s prodding, I opened the container up, pulled out the sheets of paper… “Welcome to the Alumni Association–we want your money now”, The Hippocratic oath on very nice paper, and a nice, big piece of paper that was the size of my diploma . . . that read in essence “we confer the degree of doctor of medicine on Julia Christine D—–“. It was so not fake–I’m so glad I found that out before I decided to chuck the container!

All in all, it was a wonderful day, just the graduation celebration that I was wanting and needing. I did feel bad for the other people who graduated from the School of Medicine–those with their MPH or PhDs in oncology–they were very much overlooked in the ceremony.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 23rd, 2006 at 11:13 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 Comments


  • Warning: file_get_contents(http://juno_magic.livejournal.com/profile): failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden in /home/lotrinkl/www/redheadsnippet/wp-content/plugins/also-lj-avatar/also-lj-avatar.php on line 118
    juno_magic@livejournal says:

    Oh, how beautiful! It’s great to have such a lovely ceremony at the end of many years of studying and learning and preparing….

    Congratulations again and again and again!!!


  • Warning: file_get_contents(http://claidheamhmor.livejournal.com/profile): failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden in /home/lotrinkl/www/redheadsnippet/wp-content/plugins/also-lj-avatar/also-lj-avatar.php on line 118
    claidheamhmor@livejournal says:

    Damn, still no tea. I wonder where the hell it went to. Maybe I should make a plan to send some more…

    • admin says:

      I know! I think the mailman filched it. 🙁

      If you do decide to send more, wait until I move. With 3 weeks to go, I’m sure it’d just get misplaced again in the forwarding.


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        claidheamhmor@livejournal says:

        OK, let me know when you’re there, and what the address is!

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