The anticipation, the suspense of taking off and landing. As you sit
there in the airport watching planes as well as people walking through the terminal
do that (Dr. Spencer likes telling you to observe gait in the mall), you see
all these people going places. With all these cities and destinations, you
can’t help but let your imagination for a minute go with them. Some of these
locations you have already been to, others you long to return to, and there are
those you can’t wait to see for the first time. As it all comes back to the
place you are returning to, although life is always lived forward, its best
understood backwards. Having reflection and being Introspective.
Being raised by film and cinema (some people were raised by
wolves), something from Ferris Bueller comes to mind: “Life moves pretty fast.
If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” As you come
to reflect upon your experiences, in its own significance you find the meaning
that place holds for you: John Carolin, Milton Angel Rosario, Brian Haselberger,
Thomas Ciresi, Adam Bersani, Chris Ofeldt, Billy Bob/Bilirubin/Billroth (thanks
to you the 1st years are calling me that nickname you affectionately
dubbed me with), Patricia Joy Brazis, Brandon Lee, Selena Kaminski, Morgan Baxter,
Steven Bateh (yes I learned more about food and Gator football than I could
ever want to know.), Alex Icardi, Jacob Hamad, Andrew Tyler Wilson, Eugene
Cheng, Joe Altepeter, Amy Hart, Shea Charbeneau, Matthew Madingo Edington,
Steven Stuto, Seth Holland, Danniyal Shahid, Jacob Carmichael, Richie Doering,
Rachel Hensley, Ryan (Hippluuuuurrrr) Hippler, Michael Nelson, Modupe Apetuje,
Raed Gharb, Ahmad Dandachli, Richie Doering, Zack Sealman, Nate Boskovich,
Patrick Mullen, Mena Shafiek, Weston Angermeir, Tyler Tewilliager, Shiloh
Wheeler, Shana Shetty, Hyun Young Kho, Charles Penvose, Zaheer Ahammad, Ivana
Akinyeye, Lilly Youkhana, Michael Liette, Stephen Smith, Seth Rogers, James
Montis, Darren Day, Mark Ke, Thomas Simon, Darren Day, Big Mike Thomas, Vishal
Desai, Vanatius Babila, Emyln Forsung, Christian Haight, Alison Bell, Ben
Brannick, and Will Waldo Stephens. Not only would 1st years be fortunate to
call any of these individuals their big sibling, don’t be surprised when these
people who you cross paths with in the hall everyday go on to do great things
in the world. One day you’ll look around the country as their presence will be
felt via academia, practice, in the operating room, radiology, dermatology,
wound care, limb salvage, various business ventures, administration, advisors,
clinics, state and national board associations, fellows of societies,
marketing, team doctor for a certain sports franchise, hosting their own
program series, forming super podiatry groups (like law firms but better),
research, journal publications, books, residency directors, deans, philanthropy,
or just simply people living life the way they dreamed it. Wherever it is that
you go in life, hopefully that degree will be placed prominently somewhere
because you’ll go out of your way to make a point to others that it’s where you
come from, that the word alumni held significance for you, that when the name
or logo of the institution is seen finely printed on a distinguished frame you
found it as poignant in some fashion as people do when they hear that song as
they look upon a flag.
Without
inspiration, one can form no appreciable idea of what man is capable of
achieving. You are no hero just for making someone’s foot better as that is
what you are expected to do. You go beyond what you are conditioned to think as
there is always room for ideas, imagination, dreaming, enthusiasm, charisma,
creativity, artistic expression, and being different. No matter what limitations
that you have or are perceived with, there are always certain qualities and
aspects that you just can’t define, quantify, or measure that are valuable;
rare things that can contribute to the prosperity of a profession that needs
you to help it thrive, to keep it going. As much as our “mascot” Dr. Tim likes
the dental school across town too, the dental students, and looks forward to
having his teeth pulled, he knows, like the rest of the health professions:
there holds something distinctly unique and special within the culture of
Podiatric Medicine.
Beyond
how each person comes to define success or what first got him or her interested
in something, what matters the most is what makes you stay. As for what makes
you qualified for something, that is up to the minds of others. You yourself
are just ever cognizant, always conscientious of what it is like to be on the
other side of things. There are people out there who will never go beyond ten
miles outside of where they were born, friendships that took time to develop
only to dissolve in a second, people who were indifferent about you, someone
that you wonder what could he have gone on to do in life had he been bestowed
the ability to think, reason, comprehend, and function without mental and
physically disability, and there are people out there who never got a chance to
go home.
There are many trails and paths to
the top of the mountain. Although the steps do not charm us as much as its
heights, the view is always the same. You climb it not so that the world can
see you, but so that you can see the world. To be able to do things, you don’t
need to be a president, have achievements, awards, accomplishments, degrees,
professions, positions, or even a title with two to three letters from the
alphabet soup next to your surname. Whatever you had to endure in life,
upbringing, school, or career just look for inspiration from the very people
you will one day be around there to help. Patients are survivors. For all the
things they preserve through, just remember, you can do it too. While
those other institutions and professions come to wish they got to have you, to
wonder how come they never got to have such people, you’ll have a place that
says to them “there goes one of our guys
