can you even believe it?!

Year one is DONE. DONE. DONE!  We had our last exams yesterday in surgery and while I was out with classmates having a celebratory and congratulatory lunch, grades were posted and just like that my didactic year was 100% officially completed!   I'm still in a bit of a daze, and I swear this morning when I woke up naturally at 8:30 instead of unnaturally early to an alarm blaring into my ear, I had a mini panic attack in my head about how late it was and how behind I must be!  Old habits die hard I suppose.  But for now: Sleep! Food! Drinks! Friends! 

I can't remember the last Saturday that I didn't go to campus and sit in a stuffy room cramming knowledge into my head until my eyeballs wanted to jump off my face and roll off the table into the garbage can.  Instead, this morning I took a long walk in the morning rain with three of my favorite beings and enjoyed a big cup of coffee at the kitchen table with my fiancee across from me and our pups at my feet.  Nothing like a grueling didactic year to remind you how important is it to appreciate the littlest things! 

As for the next step, we've got lots of exciting stuff crammed into my ten days of summer vacation, every day of which JP will also be on vacation, what a guy!  Tonight we are starting off with a combo early birthday celebration for the boy and end of year celebration for the me at a fancy restaurant here in Portland courtesy of my parents!  Then we leave early, early in a car bound for Portsmouth to a bus bound for Boston bound for an airplane bound for JAMAICA!!  It's going to be a tough week for us I am sure, staying in a condo with a balcony overlooking Doctor's Cave Beach, but somehow we will find a way to push through.  I've got pictures to share from the past few months, and lots to tell you about my near and approaching future, but for now I am going to go bask in the beauty of time away from the daily routine. 

Thank you, all of you, for the love, support, belief, phone calls, encouragement, wise words and moments of laughter and tears that surrounded me and lifted me up as I waded into and survived (!) one of the most difficult and rewarding years I've ever experienced.  I am truly blessed in so many ways to be exactly where I am right now.  Well... and also in Jamaica.

And Emily?  I've only got two textbooks and some handwritten notes packed...they are small I swear!