white coats

We are knee deep in this semester by now, maybe even waist deep at this point with six exams behind us, and things are starting to heat up!  Just in school though, in life it is actually starting to cool down a lot and fall is in the air!! In any case, my attention span for things outside of school has gotten pretty short lately so I wanted to post some picture from my white coat ceremony before I forgot forever! 

My pops came into town for a long weekend at the beginning of September for a number of reasons, but come Monday afternoon chief among them was my white coat ceremony!  My school did an odd job of helping recognize us for our accomplishments, which was frustrating, and a lot of my classmates didn't have family come because the ceremony was at 4:30 on a Monday, so the presence of my own family meant that much more to me.  Emily came up from Vermont, Joe rushed back in to town from a gig, and JP even took the day off from work!  It was such a great feeling to have some of the people I love the most in the audience supporting me.  JP always tells me that I don't give myself enough credit for the things I have accomplished, so I really tried to take that evening as a time to recognize for myself all that I had done.  It was a long and extremely hard struggle to get to that point, and even though I know I am not even close to being done, putting on my white coat was such an honor and really helped to remind me what I am doing this for, and why I am right here in Portland right now.  I am just so grateful for all the support I have gotten from so many people in so many different ways! 

My dad brought his first white coat from Wake Forest as a surprise, and we proudly wore them to dinner together!  Having my dad at the ceremony was such an incredibly special gift for me.  It's hard to put into eloquent words how his fight with cancer has touched me, but to be able to share such a special moment with him, a moment that he shared with us when we were younger and he was in school, was just so moving for me.  My struggles and triumphs with PA school have brought our relationship to a different level somehow, and I am so grateful to have this time to experience this part of my life with him.  I am so, so fortunate.  If only my mom and Micah could have made it, the night would have been complete!  Although... since the ceremony was completely solemn and formal until they called my name to cross the stage and a small crowd loudly called out BOOOOOP! (in the Walsh/Buboltz tradition of embarrassing the graduate) I'm not sure adding two more voices would have helped the situation!