Uncertain Beginnings

Aren't they all? But exciting too -of course.

I thought the blogger's life was over for me, that it was a sweet, short, summer 2006 fad. Not so though, obviously, because here I am, barely a week out of College and antsy as ever to be known through "the type" (we are in a cyber-age, thusly, to say "the pen" seems antiquated). So, as a good friend aptly put it, and as Harvard has put it for centuries, upon obtaining my undergraduate degree, I now "Commence" the rest of my life, Cambridge and Boston behind me (well, technically, South of me), medical school and a world of unknowns before me, back home, here in Montreal.

I am a purple pebble -a small thing in this vast Universe, that has learned exactly what they say education is supposed to teach you, that really, even though you feel like you learned so much, you don't know much. But luckily, I love discovery, I am always growing -inshallah, growing more interesting -and changing. A violet transformation. Fitting eh? Also my love for purple dates back to awkward childhood, and really, 'pebble' is just such a cute word.

I always liked the idea of skipping pebbles (I don't actually know how to skip them though). One of my sweetest Turkish memories (apart from rice pudding and baklava) was watching an old man teach his young grandson how to skip pebbles on the turquoise and opal-milky waters of Lake Egirdir right before sunset. Some skip lots, some go quite far, some sink down early, some just don't skip. Like great love, great success, great deception and great failure. Professor Ben Shahar's mantra would ring sonorous and serene during my last semester, "Learn to fail, or fail to learn." JK Rowling said nearly the same beautiful thing at Commencement, adding some saffron spice to her life-advice by emphasizing the importance of imagination for human compassion. Seems to me an appropriate world view to carry along as I stand here gaping in fear, awe and anticipation at Medicine's threshold.

The Old City -not Rome, nor Istanbul, nor Cordoba, but my Old City, my Montreal, my home. This time will be different because cities, like people, are dynamic and changing. And there is much to be discovered here these next 4 years. If you know Montreal though, you know it's an Island, surrounded by rivers and the St. Lawrence -there aren't really any famous piazza fountains. Bubbling sanctuaries are the stuff of Ancient stories, but well, here you go, my e-sanctuary, if you will.

Here's to skipping my first pebble, however uncertainly.