As the year 2019 comes to its midpoint, the uncertainty about “what’s next?” feels all consuming. In an era of ‘thank you, next’, the emphasis lies on next and not on the thank you. How could we possibly be thankful for detours, defeat, rejection, and struggle, and the shame that comes with that?

Before I came to American University and joined the College of Arts and Sciences Leadership & Ethical Development (CAS LEAD) program community, my understanding of leadership was rather limited to the idea that it required an official role for me to fill. It hadn’t occurred to me that the most profound exemplification of ethical leadership relied on an ability to look within myself. 

What I thought was a remarkable accomplishment was later shattered by the belief that boys don’t do ballet. Boys don’t dance period. Many years later, I was co-facilitating a discussion on masculinity with the Center for Diversity and Inclusion at AU.

I hope some of my most favorite moments throughout 2018 that I shared with you brought you joy, hope, inspiration, peace, comfort, awareness, and visibility.

In almost every picture of me when I was younger, my head was tilted to the side. I wrote my numbers and letters upside down and backward, so they thought I was dyslexic.

Being the only person that looks like you in a space time and time again can be seemingly difficult, but know that you can accomplish whatever you set out to do even with the hurdles that have been placed in front of you.

2018, I hope you’re ready for me and that you bring the heat! 2017, thank you! Thank you for the lessons learned above.

I am blessed and eternally grateful for where I come from, and I would not change that experience for the world.

I am excited and anxious to see what my future clinical experiences hold. I hope they provide me with an authentic depiction of what medicine is like, the good and the bad.

My superiors called me the “all around intern”, because of my willingness to assist in any way possible. Your internship experience is due in large part to what you make of it.