Graduation Day!!

Four years have passed so suddenly it begs the question of what happened! Well - two children, a pregnant wife, six-figures worth of debt, thousands of miles traveled, four moves, and countless hours spent in hospitals later, it sure as heck seems like something happened! This Saturday I will join my classmates in Kansas City for our graduation from medical school where we will celebrate the achievement of surviving medical school. We all - men & women - will don our dresses of lofty achievements and receive our 60 seconds of glory as we strut across the stage smiling, shaking hands, hugging necks, receiving compliments and praying all the while we do not trip on our dresses! And after we have picked up our $205,000 piece of paper we will exit the stage as...doctors! Hmmm.... Four years later and all that work...it just seems anti-climactic.

I guess it's all in the perspective! We will be told how wonderful we are and how proud people are of us only to find out that the real work remains. For every compliment and hug that is shared, there are millions of people who frankly do not care. They don't care because priorities like obtaining food, water, shelter, & medicine in order to make it through the day obscure their need to celebrate the greatness of our achievement. They don't care because their struggle to survive make our whines about the struggle of long nights studying over the past four years. They don't care about our terminal degrees because they would be happy with an elementary level education but cannot afford it. They do not care about our enormous loan debts or our earning potential because they live on $2 per day. They don't care...

I have not intended with this writing to downplay the significant milestone that a medical school graduation represents. It is a wonderful accomplishment that very few will ever attain. I have intended, however, to put graduation day in perspective - a point of view that allows the cries of millions (if not billions) of people around the world who will be born, live, & die in the shadows of a world that more often than not will never acknowledge their existence. We too often allow pomp & circumstance to subdue the harsh realities of our world - starvation, disease, death.

Can we/I hear their cries for help? Will we stop long enough in the midst of the accolades and busyness to listen to the deafening cry of those who wonder if anyone will hear their cry and act on their behalf?

These are my thoughts. Do with them what you will....