One semester down.

Okay, I'll admit that I chuckled at this.
Just a little genetics humor since
 we just finished a unit on genetics!

Yesterday, I took the final exam of the first semester of my medical school education.

What?!

Yeah...weird. It seems like just a few weeks ago I was stressing out about O-week and miraculously it's 18 weeks later and I am one step, although just a small one, closer to becoming a physician.

It's actually incredible how utterly different the atmosphere was before yesterday's exam as compared to our first few exams. We were all chatting about plans for vacation, and though there was a sense of urgency to just be done with the exam, there was a noticeable sense of calmness and congeniality that hasn't really been present before other exams so far this year. It really has been wonderful to get to know my classmates over the past semester and I look forward to the coming years as we transition into the workforce. I might be a little biased y'all, but I think the Class of 2016 is going to produce some seriously awesome physicians.

I have to admit that I was pretty pumped when I finished the exam. It was rough exam, sure, but it always feels good to finish an exam after studying for so long, plus it signified the beginning of a long break and, more importantly, the end of the semester. I survived! But even as excited and proud as I was, it was hard to really feel good about the day. Just before starting the exam, the news about the Sandy Hook Elementary tragedy broke and it was obviously heart-wrenching. It was/is hard to be happy about something that seems trivial comparatively.

I believe the English language fails us when it comes to articulating grief and sadness. Or maybe it just isn't the English language, but maybe just spoken and written language generally. The feelings experienced when losing people, whether just one or twenty-six, transcend the abilities of language. They cannot be talked about, but rather wholly and completely felt at our very core. Healing after something like this is not going to come easily, we shouldn't expect or hope it to. Human life is too valuable and precious not to fully honor it with the messy-ness/real-ness of our unencumbered emotions.

I am excited to have a break from school, but for now I mourn the lives of those lost in Friday's tragedy, as are thousands of other Americans. I also mourn those who have died as a result of less publicized acts of violence; their lives are just as valuable as those who have been, recently and unfortunately, thrust into the international spotlight, but too often they are out of sight and mind and ultimately forgotten. May a comforting Spirit be present throughout the United States, and the world, as we grieve for those lost as a result of all violent acts.