Class of 2022
Kyle Duke
Austin Foster
Charlotte Leblang
Ross Lordo
Class of 2021
Dory Askins
Connor Brunson
Keiko Cooley
Mason Jackson
Class of 2020
Megan Angermayer
Carrie Bailes
Leanne Brechtel
Hope Conrad
Alexis del Vecchio
Brantley Dick
Scott Farley
Irina Geiculescu
Alex Hartman
Zegilor Laney
Julia Moss
Josh Schammel
Raychel Simpson
Teodora Stoikov
Anna Tarasidis
Class of 2019
Michael Alexander
Caitlin Li
Ben Snyder
Class of 2018
Alyssa Adkins
Tee Griscom
Stephen Hudson
Eleasa Hulon
Hannah Kline
Andrew Lee
Noah Smith
Crystal Sosa
Jeremiah White
Jessica Williams
Class of 2017
Carly Atwood
Laura Cook
Ben DeMarco
Rachel Nelson
Megan Epperson
Rachel Heidt
Tori Seigler
Class of 2016
Shea Ray
Matt Eisenstat
Eric Fulmer
Geevan George
Maglin Halsey
Jennifer Reinovsky
Kyle Townsend
To Dean Douglas: medic, instructor, volunteer, father, husband and friend. With so many commemorating your extraordinary life in service, one can’t help but think of the countless times you honored those who went before you with the bagpipes you played so well.
Two years ago, when my medical school class gathered to honor those who had donated their bodies for our learning, you agreed to play for our procession. You said you were honored to watch us pay tribute with our music, our words, and our art. So today I use my words to pay tribute to you.
Two years ago I held in my small, unsteady hands
A heavy black microphone and spoke in my small, unsteady voice
Of life. Of how each of us is made of uncountable specks of light
That shimmer away and into the world like glittering dust,
And even when our bodies cease to breathe and our hearts cease
To beat, those little specks still shine, stuck to things we touched
And places we passed and other people left behind. Yours
Are not hard to find.
I see your glow in the bright, uncertain gaze of the student
Who doesn’t know where to stand when the woman rolls screaming
Into the hospital, shirt stained with blood, but he knows to grab warm blankets
And he does. I see it in the sweating hand of the medic holding that woman’s hand,
Withstanding the crushing grip of pain and worry of a young mother
Whose child is yet unborn. I see it in the harsh white of the spotlights
In the operating room when they calmly retrieve
That most precious cargo. In the blood-metal sheen on that scrap of bullet
That traveled through the air through her skin and into
Her womb to nest right next to
That tiny human hand and its even tinier human finger.
In the pearly tears of Grandma and Friend and Aunt when they
Learn the woman they love and the new child they’ve yet to meet
Are just fine. In my own sleeplessness-shadowed eyes later
The next morning when I pause in the mirror to think what a wonderful line
Of work I’m in before brushing my teeth.
In the hot dogs and bagpipes, Queen songs and bald jokes,
So many sparkling flecks throwing so much light into so many eyes
Reflecting and reflecting and reflecting
Until trying to find them all is like staring into a swirling galaxy
Of stars.
“We are all of us little specks of light, gathered together
And pressed so tight. Good night.”
I was born and raised in Spartanburg, South Carolina and attended Vanderbilt University for my undergraduate studies. I was heavily involved in Vanderbilt’s fencing club and musical volunteering at the Vanderbilt hospital before graduating in 2015 with a degree in biomedical engineering. I want to become a physician to help people pursue happiness in health and am honored and excited to study medicine at the USC School of Medicine Greenville.
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