The theme of the summer: Mountains

So I'm pretty delayed on reflecting on my summer. The first, say, 3 weeks were CRAZY. But now life has calmed down significantly. I mean, I actually have a life, which is saying something.

Two of my favorite girls after our last neuro exam :)

But lets start with the very beginning. The day after my last exam of my first year of medical school (YES I passed my first year, and am officially an M2) I headed to Colorado. I should clarify that I obviously celebrated on Friday night and didn't get to sleep untill late. And then was wide awake at 5am (unintentionally, seeing as it was my first day of summer). Then drove something like 15 hours. My brother came with me, as he's always wanted to visit Denver. So we hung out here for a few days, then flew back to Ohio together (I basically needed to drop my car off so it would be here when I got back from Ecuador).-- (pictures from my day adventuring at Pike's Peak-Rocky Mountains)


From there, I drove with 96 of the Chapel's finest down to Gatlinburg, TN. It was gorgeous and an incredible conference. Well... I pretty much enjoyed being surrounded by Christians, the leader bonding and getting to know the students! Waterfall in the Smoky Mountains

I had been trying desperately for the previous month to "get my life together" and "figure stuff out." To get back to a place where I thought I should be and have my life look like I always imagined it would look. It was a pretty painful few weeks, as a couple of my dear friends can attest. But something switched when we were in Tennessee. Not that I have my life together now, or anything. But I actually felt peace. I gained a security to enjoy the journey instead of stressing about where I felt I should be, or where people expected me to be. And for the first time in a long time, I felt like myself again. I could elaborate on this, but will spare you.

Now Ecuador. Or, in honor of my previous trip there: Ecu-ador. We were only in country for a few days, which is a new experience for me. But the students were phenomenal. They stepped up and made the most of every second. I was incredibly proud of them. I could talk a lot about the work we did while we were down there. But instead I want to discuss the difference of being a leader. Going along with my strange few months prior to leaving, I was nervous about functioning in a leader capacity. But it went shockingly smoothly, and I'm excited about the relationships that opened up while I was there and can't wait to continue investing in them when I get back to Ohio. View from one of our work-sites: Andes Mountains