Adrift...

A week has past and I have tried multiple times to write about something worth reading. Call it writer's block, call it laziness, or perhaps lack of direction... I imagine all three play a large part. When I see the blank page in front of me, all of the infinite combinations of words log-jam in my brain. Endless options, some more exciting than others, linger on the tips of my fingers. Still nothing flows out of my mind. My expression fails. "Why is this so difficult all of a sudden?!" I shout behind my eyes. "Just write about anything that fits! I can make that blank page into anything I want..." So in this issue of The Aviator's Review... How do we choose to fill a blank page?

It's no secret that the end of medical school came and went not too long ago. For the last 4 years my life's path has been set in the Hippocratic stone. The 4 long years of lessons on how to act in every situation, and often how to act in general, are ending now. Choices during my training rarely required exploration and often defaulted to one answer because I knew to stay the course. In those times I knew the where's and when's of upcoming years... until now. Finally, the question of what to do next is unclear again. Life set down a blank page.

All of us have experienced turning points in life, the moments when we realize that our lives will not be the same. The course becomes unclear and choosing a direction can be like setting out to sea without a map. Some of us live for this come-what-may kind of adventure, others fear the unkown, and some never even look to the sea... but I still believe that all of us crave the freedom that an unknown future holds. For the exact same reason, nobody reads the end of a chapter before reading the beginning.

We love stories.

"I can make my blank page anything I want." ...or at least that is what I'd like to believe. The truth is I can't create just anything. Some stories will never be put to paper by my hand, and more importantly, I am not the author of my life. Some ideas, however great, will be left unwritten because I have an expiration date. My life will end someday and my chance to fill the pages will be over. Many ideas and opportunities exist, but the time is short... We only get one story to write. Choose your course well, use the small starlight in the sky that the Almighty places on your way to guide you, and never be afraid of an open horizon.