Oops, I graduated again

I'm really not obsessed with Britney or anything, although several of my blog entries appear contrary to that statement. However, after having graduated from medical school on May 23rd, I am now forced to release my persona of "Not a med student, not yet a physician" into the arena known as "personal history," and replace it with a new blog phrase, which for the time being, is now "Oops, I graduated again." This is true! I did graduate "again" for the 3rd time in my life. And the "oops" reveals not only how the past four years seem to have flown by (time flies when you're having fun), but also of "ohhhh shit what am I getting myself into for the next three years (i.e. residency)."

There's also that other phrase that comes to mind, one that has graced our personal storage of cliches since time immemorial: The third time's a charm, baby!!! And this graduation was certainly just that: charming! I enjoyed this graduation more than any other, for obvious and not so obvious reasons. My classmates and I were genuinely proud of each other - you could feel it in those moments when we were lining up, filling through snake lines behind stage just before parading to our seats in Jones Hall. Backstage, Jones Hall transformed into the baseball dugout that I remember from elementary school, where we'd slap eachother high fives before stepping up to bat. We applauded each other, knowing exactly of the choices that we've made to enter medical school, get through medical school and not just, in the words of an infamous President Emeritus, smash our pagers against the wall and apply for a job at Old Navy. This attitude permeated throughout the ceremony and reached its climax when John Rapp began to call each of our names, calling us to receive our diplomas (and receive our diplomas we did! The diploma covers were NOT empty!). I applauded for each and every one of my classmates, maybe a little louder for some, conjoined with a little hollering for those that will forever occupy special places in my heart. This felt so good, to be proud of all my classmates, and of course, to hear my own name called without a pronunciation error.
So this very fact, the lack of pronunciation error, is also reason why the third times a charm. They have BOTCHED my name at every single one of my graduations in the past. In high school, I questioned as to whether it was really me who was up next to walk across the stage. In college, it wasn't so bad, but enough to make me smirk at how large the world still is and wonder how many sets of Indian parents in the audience were thinking, "They will never pronounce our names correctly." But at my medical school graduation, John Rapp got it perfectly. After he said it, I hesitated a bit, wanting to soak in the moment of "the third time's a charm." Not only am I about to graduate from medical school, but they just pronounced my name right! Can it get better than this?!

And then there was meeting up with my parents after graduation. And this also was unlike any other graduation. They actually had tears in their eyes. It was very emotional for them, something that I may understand only if my own child graduates from medical school or receives a PhD or something like that.

The morning after graduation, I must confess, I sat in the prayer room of our house and I opened up my diploma and traced its letters with my index finger. The only words that were not palpable were the letters of my name, printed on the diploma, the diploma that will grace my future office walls.

So, yeah: Oops, I graduated again, but this one was mighty special.