bittersweet.

Yesterday, my friends became doctors.

Today, I jumped out of an airplane from over 14,000 feet.

I s'pose tomorrow will also be a good day.

never stop caring.

And so, who are we? Well, we are very different and very alike.

We are women, we are men, we are immigrants, we are Georgians.

We are black, we are white, we are Indian, we are Asian and American, but not Asian-American, we are part Chinese, we love our people, but we sometimes feel most foreign amongst our own people.

We are minorities, but not always the majority of the time, we are well-traveled, we are hoping to become more well-traveled, we are somewhat bilingual, completely tri-lingual, and hopelessly unilingual.

We are believers, but not judgers, we are not easily offended, but we take offense to people being mean, we are older siblings, we are younger siblings, we are only children, we are twins, we are products of traditional families, and we are products of nontraditional families full of great traditions, we are close to our families and yes, we care what they think.

We are mature, we are immature, we are talented, we make sacrifices, we are driven, we try hard, we are modest but we give ourselves credit when it is due, we love anything that is outdoors, but we love to relax on the couch indoors, we love physical activity, we are determined to do more of it.

We have ties in Europe, Vietnam, China, Jamaica, India, Trinidad, Korea, oh yeah and Brooklyn, we think patients are people and we hope to always think that way.

We are full of culture in its every definition, however we choose to define our own culture, we won’t let our culture define us.

We care about what we’re doing and we hope that we never stop caring. Ever.

-- Never Stop Caring: A Charter- a compilation of things said during the inaugural meetings of Small Group Alpha circa July 2007.

Small Group Alpha - EUSOM Class of 2011 from Kimberly Manning on Vimeo.

To Alanna, Tony, Adam, Hreem, Doug, Jin and Dr. Manning:

Four years ago, we were eight strangers.

Four years later, we are a family.

Gracias para todo.

Cảm ơn cho tất cả.

Thank you for everything.

always,

Ant xx

[Charter and video courtesy of Dr. Kim Manning]