In 36 hours, I’ll be on a plane home, officially a second year medical student. As Virgin Atlantic gives a complimentary cocktail, I’ll toast this year- this challenging, torturous, painful, rewarding, year. I’ll raise my glass in memory of friends lost, the trials and tribulations of this year, the cost it has extracted. And I’ll raise it again, to friends made, to the rewards of a life in medicine, and my ability to bear those cost of that life. Finally I’ll raise it to the people who’re taking this journey with me, as classmates, professors, mentors, family or friends.

To a helluva year, and future ones to come!