I carry your heart with me

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in my heart)
i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

ee cummings

Beautiful.

luck o' the Irish

For 2 years now, my cousins and I have been planning an expedition to Ireland for Summer 2010. We spent much of thanksgiving afternoon plotting and exploring resources and options, as you can see by our intensity above. But something very interesting has come of our preliminary plans. My grandpa and aunt went to Ireland 13 years ago, and now that he actually believes that we're going to go, he's excited for us. I'm about half Irish and half German, but I was raised to value my Irish heritage and cling to it. I think I'm gonna have to marry an Irishman one day (to keep my irish last name as well as the fact that they have the most amazing accents ever). My grandpa has always instilled an appreciation for our heritage in us--even in the most simple ways.

Today at lunch, his eyes lit up. "Susan," he said with a twinkle in his eyes, "I have something for you!" He had collected all his old information from his trip, made copies of his travel logs to give to me, and attached ancestry lists from family who's traced us back to Ireland. There was something special about reading my grandpa's entries from his travels. When someone writes--I mean hand-writes, not emails and typing etc.--it shows their personality, and their heart. Even funny things, like details about what they had for meals made me laugh. I don't know why, really, but it was cool to read about things that my grandpa saw and what he thought about them.

I want to have something like that when I'm older. An experience, a set of thoughts that I can share with my grandkids. It just made me think!

Some Goals.

What do I want to do in the next 5 years?

-finish Medical School
-Residency in some cool city (I'll try not to be unreasonably picky)
-Ireland with the cousins
-Run a half Marathon

What do I want to do in the next year?
-Orchestra Concert in Cleveland and/or Blossom
-Go to an Art Museum
-A rural health experience
-At least one roadtrip every 4 months (to Chicago, Boston, Washington DC, or New York)
-Read 5 fun books

my token political post

I'm excited for tomorrow. There's something that always washes over me when I go to vote. The sense of national pride and belonging to a nation that I feel when I stand in endless lines of people to make little, seemingly insignificant marks on a piece of paper. Most people don't know this about me, but one day, my goal is to work for the government. Maybe this contributes to my love of participating in elections. During the months leading up to the key November day, I hate politics. I hate the nothing statements and the broad, unspecific dreams that are painted, with no practical ways of fullfilling them. This is one of the reasons I want to work for Washington. I want to be a part of working for the fulfillment of those promises and ideals. But once the votes are cast, the real agendas and character comes out. I love this transition. Who knows if it's good or bad, but integrity starts to enter the scene on election day. We have actions to match up with words and see what's really being said. I love it.

That being said, I'm also thrown back to where I was during the last Presidential Election. I was still in high school, and spent 2 months being berated by faculty about why voting for Bush is the only choice that lines up morally for Christians, and if you vote for Kerry you're an awful Christian (to be fair, only one person made this statement outright). Even though I wasn't able to vote, in nurtured a rebelliousness in me. Now I'm in medical school, where most people's number one issue will be healthcare reform and other related issues. I'm in a place where it's the assumption that everyone's voting for Obama. It's a pleasant place to be. I usually choose not to engage in these discussions, but it's fun to listen to people talk knowing that my opinions are actually the majority.