All things considered, you know, putting aside all things, NCNM has treated me well. I mean, where else can you go where you are outnumbered (as a man) five to one by the most spectacular and brilliant women. Where else can you practice Tai Ji on the NCNM lawn (the parking lot) with fellow China travellers, newbies, and old timers alike. Where else can we drum in and then out again a new lineage of healthcare practitioners. Yeah, I like this place. With all it's quirks and eccentricities, with the lack of communication that makes the paper chase more of a marathon, with the spirit of newness and future that binds us. Yeah, it's a pretty good place. Oddly, the Josiah Failing building has passed the test to become an extremely comfy home despite the excessive temperature fluctuations and lack of GREEN GRASS. And yeah, we all have our memories of the Lair Hill Park on sunny days with no shirt (for the guy) and tank topped studying. Sure it was soggy and our pants got muddy but that is expected in early spring. I revel in the days off, I take them as often as possible and they always refresh my love for this campus, even the stinky bike room where I occasionally walk in on a commuter in transit from spandex to clinic clothes.
I hula hooped with the best of them, healed and was healed by my guinea pig seeking classmates, I laughed at the absurdity of professors wasting my time with songs about mitochondrion and I laughed at absurdly hard tests that forced me to up the studying ante. I cried about lost classmates, I cried about absurdly hard tests that forced me to up the studying ante, and I will cry when I have to leave the hallowed halls of the National College of Naturalopathicalisticallyfabulous medicine.
