As I daydreamed in my clinical medicine class of travel, the professor a background noise to my planning and wandering brain I came to a realization:
I have three main loves in this world
People
Travel
Medicine
[yes, God is here and he plays a part in all of this - I have not forgotten him!]
But seriously, if someone asked me the three things I could not live without it would be this small list. Then, of course, my scientific mind started searching for the connecting factor, the line that tied these three priceless aspects of my life to me and the depths of my heart. And it came down to one thing... but before I get there let me explain why these are what pull me in
PEOPLE
Anyone who knows me may be questioning this one as I am one of the shyest and most awkward souls I know. My small talk game? non-existent. So people? Ok, yes I may be the world's worst small talker but I am pretty good at listening. Picture this: you are catching up with an old friend in a coffee shop, soft twinkling lights hang over your table and your hands are wrapped around a comforting cup of coffee. You look up from your swirling brown cup at the person sitting across from you, someone you know well - or maybe not. Anyway, you start up a conversation as you gaze around the quaint shop but soon you stumble upon a topic that just lights a fire in their soul and they cannot stop talking. Now you're really focused, you note their voice dripping with passion as they explain in great detail this topic. They begin to add detail not just with their words but with their hands as they make gestures and fall deeper into their passion. Their coffee long forgotten and losing steam, the twinkling light fading in the background but the light in their eyes growing brighter by the minute.
Those are the moments I live for. Not small surface level talk but deep conversations that expose a person and make them real and raw. Why do I cherish this? I get to see the handiwork of God in that person. He so intricately knit that person together, not just with bones and tendons, but with stories and experiences and passions that are so incredibly unique. You get to see God's hand in their life as they share their triumph and hardship, see his creativity in the mixtures of hobbies and passions that he pours into each heart, and get to see the depth of thought he put into making human beings.
TRAVEL
Ah, yes, sweet sweet travel. Definitely one of my biggest passions, and thankfully God has blessed me with the friends, family, and ability to see much of his incredible creation. I don't think this one takes too much explaining if you have ever stepped foot outside of Ohio [jokes jokes - OH is great]! Even in the United States there is so much incredible beauty hidden that is just waiting to be found - there are swamps, rainforests, mountains, beaches, gorges, waterfalls, lakes.... need I continue?
But one of the moments that always draws me back is standing with my friends on top of a mountain in Colorado just looking out at the vast expanse of stunning land sitting like a portrait in front of us. And there I was in awe, not of the view, but at the thought of a God big enough to sculpt the mountains with his hands, the giant pieces of rock that took hours of panting to climb. A God who painted the red rocks I had climbed earlier that day, one who spoke light that allowed me to see the vastness of his creation with a single word, the one who created restrictions for the lake sat at the foot of the mountains still looming above me. The one who formed the delicate petals of the flowers, arranged the roaring waterfalls, the one who came up with the idea for every ground gopher and butterfly that had caught my attention on the hike up. And instead of feeling small, I felt beautiful and protected and more loved than ever because the God with the creativity and power and majesty to create what I was admiring also stands with me, stands for me, and took the time to make me too so that I could enjoy and discover his signature all throughout this beautiful world.
MEDICINE
Now this is more of a love-hate relationship - don't get me wrong medicine is spectacular and thrilling and mind-blowing but studying it 14 hours a day can take the spark away sometimes... which is why it is so important to remember why you fell in love with it in the first place. Now I knew I loved medicine when I got to cadaver lab and the dead bodies did not make me freak out or want to throw up. Now maybe that sounds kind of gross, but let me tell you when you get to hold a brain for the first time so many emotions hit you. You have in your hands a soft delicate piece of matter that contained the whole of who that person was. It contains all the neurons that fired when their mind was cranking its gears to solve a problem. You are holding their memories, their experiences, the ones that crafted them into who they were. And it is just such a humbling, intimate, and special moment - and to realize I get to save people and help them keep on living, giving them back to their loved one is just the most amazing gift.
Now learning medicine is hard, sitting through hundreds of slides a day can be intimidating, but it is hard to not once again sit in class and find myself in awe of who God is. The human body is so intricately made that even the smallest adjustments can lead to devastating results - for instance - if the dopamine receptors [the little neuron guys that use dopamine to help you function properly] in this one tiny portion of the brain called the substantia niagra degenerate you get Parkinson's, a disorder characterized by unorganized movement and lack of control over your muscles. If one of your heart cells decides to beat just a bit too early you could enter into a dangerous heart rhythm. And don't get me started on the 30step process from brain to muscle movement that happens in an instant so that I can type this right now without even thinking about it! Your body is literally the most amazing machine ever created - and to think about the mind who planned it and made everything so perfectly for life to exist never fails to amaze me!
And so what ties all these things together - the ability to learn more about who God is. He is so much bigger than we can even begin to wrap our 3lb brain around, and yet he left clues for us all over creation so that each day we can have the opportunity to find out just a little bit more about our creator. He wants to be known by us - He wants us to seek him in all we do. He is not just a God who created and left us to fend for ourselves. He left his signature and fingerprint on everything in this world so that when we gaze out at the people, places, and things in front of us we cannot miss it - we cannot miss the vastness, tenderness, creativity, and majesty of who He is.
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