Reflecting way back, I recall the exact moment sitting in my living room junior year of undergrad filling out applications for med school on my laptop, simply google searching “music and medicine” for some research when I by chance found MiM online. I added yet another priority on my plate junior year because it felt like a calling. It‘s been a huge part of my own growth to watch my aspirations from that moment transform with KAP, especially starting my role directing the campus chapter program.
Charlie was the patient I was paired with for the Music is Medicine program for the nonprofit Katie’s Art Project (An artist writes a song for a patient with a life threatening illness) We only Skyped with him and his Mom when we were connected. They moved from Wisconsin to Texas and arranged a lyric video for the song and our first in person meeting
Hearing a 10 year old boy talk about his journey in canxer and how he understood his song was amazing. Humbling.
This meeting with Charlie reminded me of the importance of being proud of progress even when you haven’t “made it yet” in your mind. For me it has made me understand myself and how truly ambitious I am in life when it comes to passion for big ideas and the people I care about.
And then...equally how zapped out of energy and pained I feel when things don’t work out. Emotionally exhausted for many reasons but I’m learning to stay positive and accept how strongly I can feel about things and the heartache that sometimes comes with those feelings. This year started out with a lot of unexpected tough emotions, anxiousness, and lows that I still try to sort out in my head but it’s been great the past 2 months getting back to posting a lot about the things I love. I enjoy social media and it’s potential to inspire but it’s important to create, connect, and then log off when it’s not conducive of your time. I‘m truly a big dork as most know and by no means perfect but instead constantly struggle with the idea of perfection. Reminder, while some days I am proud to share me “living my dreams”, I have plenty of days where I am in a messy bun with no makeup, baggy under eyes, and flawed skin. I’ve sat in my room and cried a lot on the most rough days this year thinking about the past and the future, the why’s and the when’s. I’m trying to “figure it out” like most of us. My social media posts are just me being happy in that moment. I enjoy connecting with new people and I hope some are inspired!
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