May 5, and May 12, 2002
Hello all,
My classmates and I have finally made it through our didactic years of medical school, so I hope you don't mind if I am in a reflective mood. I am sure that when composing our personal statements for the medical school application process, many of us considered writing that we wanted to be a doctor in order to help people. A few of us might have even decided that despite the cliche it was true enough to put down in writing. On our journey through medical school, we have not blinked at pulling the vital organs out of human bodies, learning more detail about human disease and pathology than you could imagine (and forgetting more than you would care to imagine), and learning to work together to overcome a challenge that cannot be explained, only experienced. During our journey my fellow classmates have lost loved ones, spouses, and faced debilitating illness. We were told in our last day of lecture that we should be proud of how far we have come; but, what I am most proud of is the way we have gotten here. Our journey has been a difficult one, but we accomplished it together. Perhaps it is because we call ourselves, "Team 2004," or maybe it is due to our professionalism charter that encourages support for our colleagues, it may even be that we were just lucky enough to get a bunch of really good people, but whatever the reason for the team approach we have, I am very glad to be a part of such a competent and caring class. I have no doubt that most of us went into medicine to help people, and many of my classmates are even now doing just that. My hope and prayer is that in the coming years we will not lose our way in the wasteland of modern medicine.
God Bless Us Each and Every One,
Brenton Reading
