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And then there were none

A week and a half ago I graduated from Calvin College…and that’s it. It’s funny. You spend so much time at one place studying, figuring out who you are, making friends, eating, talking, learning, and working that in doing so, that place becomes your home. Then in one day, it all crumbles. Okay, that might be a slight overstatement, but its odd how fast it all happens. The weeks before graduation, I was so excited for the big day when I would receive my diploma and celebrate my accomplishments over the past four years, but when I think back to graduation day, it was all a blur. (I do remember how my wonderful family was there and that meant so much!)

The day after graduation, reality really settled in. We were DONE with college. That was it. For many, that meant no more tests, no more papers, and no more late nights trying to get it all done. Even more sobering, however, is that for those of us at Calvin, it also means the end of something bigger: the Calvin community. Sure, we will all remain in some sort of community throughout life; yet I honestly do not think we will experience the unique, intricate, amazing community that was formed at Calvin over the past four years in the same way ever again. And that’s okay, but it’s an adjustment.

As I think back on my community at Calvin, that’s what college is all about. It was the late night talks with friends about deep life issues; partaking in the spontaneous, not-really-my-cup-of-tea ideas of others, going to the beach on a Sunday when there was work to be done; living with 4-7 other guys, which always resulted in something interesting; and knowing that the people you cared about the most, those that knew and understood you the best, were always there for you. For me, there will be many more books to read, tests to take, and skills to learn. But will those other things from college ever happen again in a similar fashion? I don’t know. I do hope, however, that in the future God place me in a community that is at least as half as rich as that of Calvin.

Am I sad? I’m not sure if that is the word I’d use—I’m excited for what lies ahead. I think I’d instead say I’m experiencing the bittersweet feelings that for me come with change. You look ahead and are eager to sprint onward and take on new challenges. Yet as you take that first stride, your other foot drags behind as you look back and see all that you are leaving. It happened when I went to high school. It happened after I worked at Doe River Gorge. It happened when I left for college. It’s part of life. I know that God has placed each and every person I’ve encountered over the years into my life for specific reasons, and I for that I am thankful.

There's always a first time for everything!

Word to the young: when you search for that special person in your life, look for someone who pushes you out of your comfort zone. Thankfully for me, I have Annie Nicholson.

Today, I ran my first 10K. I've done some shorter runs, but this was my first longer run (I say longer because in the grand scheme, 6.2mi isn't that long). Earlier this semester I toyed with the idea of doing it, but I hated running. I went back and forth with the idea for a while and Annie kept encouraging me to run. Finally I decided to sign up....and I loved it! The weather was ugly this morning, but I must say that the rain felt good throughout the race. It was really nice to compete in something again too. It's been a while since I've done any type of competitive sport.

After the run there was another first: we went to Gaia. Now you might think, "hmm okay, what does that mean?" Well, Annie eats healthier than me and my impression of Gaia prior to today was that it was a hippy vegan restaurant with small portions that wouldn't fill me. Boy was I wrong! (God loves doing this to me to keep my pride in check.) The meal was delicious.

Before I go I have one more thing to add: if you know me, you know that I love to find new hobbies, especially expensive ones that allow me to buy cool gear. After today's 10K today, I think I'm hooked. So what's next? Let's just say that instead of studying for this evening's Spanish final, I've been searching for sprint triathlon/duathlons later this summer. Let's see if this happens....

Even better news

I’m thrilled to go to medical school, it’s the reason I’ve invested so much over the past few years. But you know what? Annie and I got engaged this past weekend and I’m even more excited to spend the rest of my life with her! So let me tell you what went down.

Annie and I had looked at rings together a few weeks ago because I really wanted her to love what she got (and thankfully we did because she hated everything I liked!). Once she picked a few she liked, I told her the ring I chose would take about a month or so to get set and sized, but it was actually ready the following week…so she had no idea that the engagement would be happening soon. This past Thursday we went down to Cincinnati because I had a Second Look event at UC’s med school and so the weekend had an “all about me” feel which helped take away any of Annie’s suspicions.

Friday after I got back from UC I asked Annie to go to dinner and boy was it difficult to get her to say yes! She wanted to stay home with her family because she doesn’t see them often but she finally agreed because everyone was “busy” for the night. We went to a great Asian restaurant called Green Papaya in Hyde Park. At dinner I was super anxious and flustered, but I don’t think she was catching on. Toward the beginning of our meal I told Annie I had something really exciting to tell her and to give her. Before I go on, you should know that Annie always loses her water bottles and I had told her when I picked a med school that I’d give her a water bottle from that school. But when I told her I had something for her she started to think that was it…and you know what she thought? “Is he really going to do it here?” But I didn’t. I gave her the bottle and told her that I had chosen UC for med school. (Annie is from Cincinnati so this was exciting news since we will be near friends and family for the next four years.) She thought that was the big news and all her suspicions left, and so did my anxiety….for the most part.

After dinner we were extremely stuffed and I asked Annie if she wanted to go for a walk at a nearby park. What she didn’t know, however, was that three of her good friends had set up something special for us. When we got to the park, I was a mess. I wasn’t familiar with the park so I had no idea where to go. To make it worse, Annie took my coat because she was cold and so I had to put the ring in my pocket which was super obvious. We walked around for a bit and eventually I saw what the girls had set up. The only problem was that Annie had to go to the bathroom, which was right near the overlook where I need to take her. So I awkwardly distracted her as we walked in that direction and tried to get her to run to the bathrooms with me since we had to go so bad….I was so nervous, I couldn’t think of anything else to do! We did what we had to do and when she came out, I was standing by “the place.” There was a blanket, strawberries, champagne, and music overlooking a beautiful view. As she walked over to me, she knew what was going on. She walked over to me, I got down on my knee, and I asked her to marry me!

 The rest of the night we spent with family and friends. It was a wonderful night and a special time for Annie and me. We’re very thankful for everyone who has invested in us as individuals and as a couple over the years. We are excited for what God has in store and pray that through our marriage we will grow closer to Him.

A decision has been made!

After months of anxiety while I waited for an acceptance, I finally got in. And to my dismay, I got into multiple schools. Don’t get me wrong, that was a blessing, but a new type of stress came on. Now I had to choose among those schools and find out which one was the best fit for me. Finally, after months of prayer and thought, I’ve made my decision. My educational resume will now look like this:

Nordonia Hills City Schools—Northfield, OH

St. Edward High School—Lakewood, OH

Calvin College—Grand Rapids, MI

and now...

The University of Cincinnati College of Medicine—Cincinnati, OH

Keep on going

I'm a pretty self-motivated person, but boy is it hard to keep going. It's senior year, I've been accepted to med school, and classes aren't that hard...but there's work to be done. Sometimes I get worried and think that I'm just losing all my discipline and work ethic and that won't make it through med school. Thankfully I have some great friends who slap me in the face (figuratively of course)  and remind me that its good ol' senioritis kicking in. You would hope a future doc could diagnosis that, right? (On a side note, senioritis doesn't really make sense."-itis" means "inflammation of," so in that case senioritis means inflammation of a senior....weird.)

The next two weeks are looking pretty good. I don't have much due this week and we are off on Friday for Good Friday so Annie and I are headed to Cleveland for Easter. Next week we don't have classes Tuesday and Wednesday and the following weekend we will be headed to Cincinnati for a Second Look event at UC and to see Annie's family. After that there's only two weeks left and then finals....crazy! 

I love Calvin, don't get me wrong, but I'm ready to move on. 

Verge

I would like to start this off by saying I feel very cocky posting what I am about to post. I promise, the following link is relevant to my journey in becoming a doc. After I won the AspiringDocs video contest last year, my college did a short news video on me (every week they cover stories of different students throughout campus and I was just one of the lucky ones to get chosen). More recently, Calvin decided to make a magazine called Verge for high school seniors who are "on the verge" of coming to Calvin, clever huh? They wanted to make it fun and artsy and not to "Calvin-y." Well anyway, they wrote the cover story about my Calvin experience and the path along which God has taken me. They are both posted on the Verge website:

Calvin College Verge: The DNA of a Good Doctor

Again, I don't mean to come off self-centered by posting this. My hope is that you can get a better idea of my story from these than you may have from my poorly written blog posts. Thanks for checking this out!