chair #7

The chair was in my cubicle, sitting next to my office chair, waiting for me. "I missed you", it said. I told it I hadn't forgotten it.

Today is Nurse's day. I am certainly grateful to all the nurses who I have ever worked with, and who have cared for those I love.

This is what I told my students at the end of graduation. For context, whenever one of my students would do something good, I would bestow a "gold star" upon them--not a real one, just an imaginary one. If they successfully inserted a suppository, a task that most students shudder at, I would bestow a "golden finger".

"For my last act as your teacher, I give each of you a golden heart. You will need it.

I want you to always remember this morning, and the optimism and idealism you feel.
Don't ever lose it or forget it, and never let anyone talk you out of it.

In your careers, you will do more good than you can ever imagine, and touch more lives than you will ever know.
And 25 years from now, you might be standing where I am, looking out over a group of nurses,
thinking about how humbling it is that we have been chosen to do this awesome work.

Do good."