The blessing in failing.

I've "borrowed" this blog title from Kirk Franklin, a modern day gospel musician and you can click here if you want to read his take on this subject.

The thing is that I've been VERY well acquainted with "failure" since we relocated to Texas almost 2 years ago, from the job whose funding vanished just before we came, to being laid off twice once for basically having asthma, to my inability to "connect" with a research group for longer than 3 months. But when I reflect on all this (and I've been doing a LOT of this lately), I realize that my resolve to finish medical school probably wouldn't be as strong had I not had those "failures". And I place failure in quotation marks because I really don't see what's happened to me as failure at all. I do see it as I time in my life where I "swam through a sea of bull****, lol!!! And while I haven't mentally moved far enough away from it all to see it as a 100% positive experience yet (yeah, I'm still salty about the research experience last summer), I am beginning to see the blessing in it all. For example, I have a much stronger appreciation for all the blessings I do have in my life like my regular interaction with young children and those with special needs. Yep, it just brings up all those warm, fuzzy feelings I have about the field of pediatrics, in combo with IM of course!!! My stay in small town America has also reinforced my surprising desire to work in a rural community as opposed to an urban one. Health issues among urban minorities is something to observe, but I had NO IDEA the issues minorities in rural communities deal with. WOW!! JUST WOW!!! At any rate, I'm also reminded of the broken promise to myself to refresh my Spanish since the plan these days is to stay in Texas indefinitely. But I'm also quite aware that just like Texas showed up on my radar out of no where, there could be another set of blessings disguised as failures in my future too, so I'll stay open to it all, while continuing to enjoy the ride!!!