PreMDpilot

There is a graveyard on the way to school. I've driven past it every day for the last 7 months. I glance over every now and then as a name and a cross flashes by, but it never really registers. Since the weather has warmed up, I've begun walking to school. Now I pass the graves much more slowly.

In fact, I've even started to walk through the cemetary. It's much more peaceful and I can be alone with my thoughts. I pass the graves and read the names and wonder who the people were. I think about what death will be like and I think that if it's as peaceful as that cemetary then it won't be bad at all.

There is a certain irony in the passage of a student physician through a place of death every morning and afternoon. Death no longer holds the fear and revulsion that was there before. I've been up close and personal with death in order to learn how to heal the living and the passage through the graveyard is more peaceful than unnerving.

The saddest part of the journey is right before I leave the graveyard. I pass small graves with teddy bears and flowers. The peace is broken and I have to avert my eyes. The death of children is still reserves that fear. It drains my spirit but it reminds me why I am doing what I am doing. Why death is a worthy adversary and why the fight against it is such a noble pursuit.