The Decade’s Greatest Hits

This is not an overly timely post, but several weeks ago I surpassed a milestone that bears mentioning. January 29th, 2012 was the 10th anniversary of my first tattoo. It was also my 30th birthday. While 30 is no longer The Birthday In Which Your Life Is Over that it was even in my parents’ generation, I still approached this particular year with some amount of trepidation. Twenty and twenty-one were my last big milestone birthdays, and I couldn’t fathom how 10 years had passed already… I had lived a full decade of my adult years, and did I have anything to show for it?

Almost as soon as I asked that question of myself, I knew of course the answer is yes. I’ve never been one to exercise excessive bragging rights, but in looking back on my accomplishments over the past 10 years, I believe I have the right to a certain amount of – to borrow a phrase from my college sorority – “pardonable pride.” My life between 20 and 30 has brought me no small number of endeavors to be proud of, and even more importantly, a seemingly infinite number of joys, experiences, and indelible memories. I could probably spend a lifetime writing about all of them, but then no one would finish reading this post, so instead I have compiled my own personal “Top Ten Greatest Hits” from the past decade:

10. Triathlons: During my third year of medical school, Mike and I had the brilliant idea to train for a sprint triathlon. It was a moment of temporary insanity, but we joined a training group, went through the approximately 4 month training process, and actually finished the 750m swim, 20km bike, and 5km run. No records were set to be sure, but I do remember feeling an incredible sense of accomplishment after it was over. For someone who has never been, shall we say, athletically gifted, to be able to finish something like a triathlon was quite exhilarating. It was even fun – so much fun, in fact, that in another moment of temporary insanity I signed up for, trained for, and completed a second sprint triathlon during my fourth year of medical school. An IronMan I will never be, but every year since then I have wanted to do another one, but of course residency always seemed to derail that plan. Maybe this will be the year I pick it back up again.

9. Carnegie Hall: At the end of my intern year, I had the opportunity to travel to NYC with my church choir and sing in a concert at Carnegie Hall. The music selections were superb, and we actually got to rehearse with and perform with the various composers as our conductors. As a lifelong music lover, to be able to sing with such outstanding musicians in a building rife with musical history is a once in a lifetime experience that I will never forget.

8. Tori: Speaking of music – anyone who knows me even a little knows that Tori Amos is my absolute favorite musician of all time. My love affair with her music started in high school (probably almost a little tritely – what love-sick, angsty teenage girl did NOT love Tori Amos in the 90s???) and has continued ever since. I’m not nearly as crazy about it as I used to be (I was quite crazy), and I think that my appreciation of her music has matured as I’ve matured, and her music has matured as well. But really, the point of #8 is that I actually MET TORI AMOS. When I was a 2nd year medical student, Tori was doing a combo book tour/concert tour, and one of her stops was in Chicago. I got tickets to go to her book signing, and actually got to meet had have a 30 second conversation with the One and Only Tori Amos.

7. Putting on my Bowling Shoes: There were many things I loved about Vanderbilt, unfortunately the football team was infrequently one of them. That’s why, when I was an intern and Vandy squeaked enough wins out of the 2008 season to be bowl-eligible, I rearranged my entire holiday call schedule to be able to attend the game. Not only was I at Vanderbilt’s first bowl game since the year I was born, they actually WON the Music City Bowl that year. I spent New Year’s Eve driving back from Nashville to Indianapolis and went to call the next day on about 3 hours’ sleep, but it was totally worth it.

6. Parlez-vous Francais? As part of our whirlwind post-Kenya trip around the world in 2010, Mike & I spent a week in London and Paris. This was my first visit to Europe, and again I could pen multiple pages about our fantastic week and the various experiences we had (which in theory I will do someday). One highlight amidst a week of highlights was dining at Le Jules Verne, the restaurant in the Eiffel Tower. It was a 4-hour, 5-course, wine-fueled dining extravaganza, and by far the most expensive meal we have ever eaten. It was also another once (or hopefully twice- or thrice-) in a lifetime experience, and arguably the best food we have ever eaten (or second best… which is a leads me to…)

5. Maui: I need to preface #5 by saying that Mike & I share a love of travelling. We have been truly blessed to have both the means and the opportunity to travel to a wide variety of places in the US, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, Africa, and Europe. This was of course B.C. (Before Children). We have been on many fantastic vacations, but our unanimous favorite was our trip to Maui in February of 2010. Hands down the best vacation we have ever been on. Also something I will in theory write about more extensively someday, that trip was the ultimate combination of perfect timing (the winter of my 2nd year of residency), perfect weather, perfect hotel, perfect car, perfect adventures…. It was just… perfect. We snorkeled in Molokini crater, watched humpback whales breach only yards from our boat, biked down Haleakala at dawn, drove the white-knuckle Road to Hana, and ate THE best dinner of our entire existence at Mama’s Fish House. Between #5 & #6, Mike and I spend a lot of time discussing our dining adventures, and we vacillate between Paris and Maui being the Best Meal of All Time. Despite being over two years ago, we still talk about our vacation to Maui all of the time. Given that there are still a huge number of places I want to visit in my lifetime, I don’t frequently like to repeat vacations; however, Maui is a place I hope to visit many more times in the years to come.

4. Education: You’ve probably noticed that I’ve framed the experiences of my previous decades based on where I was in my medical training. Of all of the things that shaped my 20s, my education was by far the most influential and pervasive. I graduated from Vanderbilt at age 22, medical school at age 26, and residency at age 29, so literally the entirety of the past decade has been spent in some type of formal education. My journey to becoming a physician has been one of immense personal growth and satisfaction, and the relationships I have made over its course have shaped my identity as both a physician and an adult. Thirty is a milestone of years, and also of career. I have finally completed the training portion of my career (well, for now anyway) and I look forward to starting my first “real” job in July.

3. Kenya: If you’re at all familiar with the genesis of this blog, you know that it started out as a chronicle and tribute to my now two experiences living and working in Kenya. Literally hundreds of pages have been dedicated to the various events of 2007 & 2010, and there is no way I could overemphasize the importance of these experiences in my life. They shaped me as a doctor and a human being, and gave my career a direction I could have never have previously anticipated.

2. 9/8/11: The birth of baby J, our first child. No words could describe the importance, the joy, the frustration, the elation I have experienced in becoming a mom. If my life’s work were nothing more than bringing her into the world and raising her, I would be nearly completely satisfied.

1. Mike: After almost 8 years of marriage, I have no shortage of words of praise (or sometimes seemingly criticism ) for my life’s partner. We married at 22, young and naïve, and over the course of the past decade we have grown, grown up, and grown closer together. While marrying later might have made us better prepared for the trials and travails of marriage, I would not trade our experience of mutual maturation into adulthood for anything. After 10 years of “going steady,” the innumerable experiences, memories, joys, and sorrows have simply melded into the unbroken warm glow of Our Life Together, and I could not be more grateful for his presence in my life. Maintaining a relatively normal, drama-free, adult relationship through the ups and downs of life, career, and family is not easy as I’ve discovered, and amongst all of my accomplishments, of this I am the most proud.

If the next decade holds as much as the previous, I am happy indeed. After all, age is just a number and 40 IS the new 30… but if 40 is the new 30, then 30 must be the new 20 (and 20 is the new… 16? 10?), but I’m not sure I really like that comparison. While my 20th birthday marked a time of great excitement and promise in my life, I don’t think I would want to be 20 again. Indeed my first tattoo at age 20 was also my last tattoo. My 20s were great, but I did what most do in their 20s – I grew up. And the thing is, I actually kind of like being an adult now. I am grateful for the memories and experiences of my 20s, and look toward those of my 30s with anticipation and hope.