Election
night 2008 is a vivid night in my memory. I arrived back at my house
around 6 or 7pm from 2 long days of medical school interviews to
find a house full of friends watching the TV and an envelope from a school I
had recently interviewed at. I opened my
first acceptance letter surrounded by the love of my community and with the optimism
of change in the air. The night was
spent intensely watching returns, having both light hearted & deep
conversations, coloring in maps, and day dreaming about what the future would hold. I went to sleep with the certainty of Obama’s
victory and my long awaited admissions ticket to medical school in the fall.
[However,
learning about the prop 8 results when I woke the next morning was
heartbreaking and felt like a personal attack.
And now, 4 years later, we’re still trying to untangle the mess it
created. Hopefully, tonight’s vote on
marriage have an opposite outcome as prop 8 did.]
4
years later, I am wrapping up medical school.
I would be on the interview trail again right now had I not elected to
take this year for research. I am
anxiously awaiting the news tonight will bring in a new city with a new
community. I am uncertain about my
future – about what our healthcare system will look like tomorrow and how it
will affect my career. While the economy
is likely to continue to improve (assuming we don’t start another war),
healthcare, women’s reproductive rights, and queer communities in the United
States are resting on a precarious ledge. I pray that I go to bed tonight with the same optimism and certainty
that I did 4 years ago.
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