the graduate

Today was senior Sunday at church and I watched online because I'm laying low these days and taking care of Poopie.  For the first time in weeks, there is no diarrhea today, praise the Lord!  I know y'all get tired of hearing about her shenanigans and I'll try to do better about subject matter.  

Oscar and I went for a walk today and as I was walking back toward the house I mentally compared what it looks like now compared to the old 1930ish photo of the original log cabin on a gravel road from that same perspective.  I do so love the history of this place.  

It's almost Mother's Day and then graduation.  It doesn't seem like 50 years since I graduated from DHS but it has been.  46 years since I graduated from college.  I kind of flew through high school without studying a lot but college was different.  WAY different.  After two years at DSCC which were relatively painless I hit U of M and after that UTCHS where they don't play.  Living in a dorm was a real eye opener for me, especially sharing a room with a local girl that I didn't know too well.  She married early and we lost touch.  At UT, I had my own crackerbox room that my parents paid for along with spending money.  The coursework was so hard and I was so into my boyfriend that they knew I couldn't work that last year.  God bless them for taking out a loan to get me through. I suppose I owe my brothers 1500 each because they chose not to go!  I think they were the smart ones. I was really homesick, especially that last year.  I remember calling Mama about three months from graduation and telling her I just "couldn't do it."  She drove her ass to Memphis and convinced me otherwise.  Thanks Mom!

At  my graduation ceremony there were a gazillion of us from UTCHS at the Colliseum. I have pictures somewhere and a weathered diploma. I never had an "office" to hang it in so it's just been laying around all these years.  Most of my classmates have retired from long and successful careers.  The College of Allied Health includes everybody outside of medicine, nursing, dentistry and pharmacy.  Clinical lab.  RT.  PT.  Dental Hygiene. Occupational therapy.  I know I've left somebody out.  Oh...Histology and Cytology.

What stands out to me as I look back on my career is how well we all worked together as a team to provide quality care.  We knew and trusted each other well enough to not be offended if somebody points out a mistake or a different way to do things.  At the end of the day, we put aside our differences and figured things out.  Were there politics?  Oh yeah.  Corporate healthcare breeds that.  Corporate anything does.  That's why I love "The Office" so much.

Peace and Grace and Happy Mother's Day and Happy Gradutation ^j^