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Do you ever get the feeling that the people you meet in life are not due to accidental happenings? Yes, that sounds cliche, but perhaps only because the question has been so frequently asked and dismissed at the same time. This past weekend was great: complete avoidance of all work, just hanging out with friends, catching up on their lives. I could say that about the WOFIGO retreat too, but this was different. It wasn't so much a time to shore up existing friendships, but to start them anew. I met someone. We said 'hi' in the elevator, and I mispronounced his name. He and I share a mutual friend, and her revelation about him has stayed with me. It is changing my life outlook in a way I have not thought possible.

At school the focus has turned to neurology, and case presentations invariably expose us students to strange and terrifying disease states, such as tumors and strokes. Brain tumors are especially hard cases to deal with, not in terms of their pathology, but their progression and outcome. Tumors in the frontal cortex change personalities, while in other areas obliterate memory, speech, and awareness--eating away at everything that makes an individual himself. To think, the prospect of loosing ones self is terrifying enough at any age, but to see cases in children and young adults in the prime of their lives...

I have tremendous respect for him, and admiration for what he is going through. The caregiver within me wants to leap out and help in some way, not out of pity, but out of sheer hope and a desire to learn from him. That, and he seems like a really cool guy. I hope I get the chance to become his friend.