At the end of the day, faith is a funny thing (the end of an era at UMMC)

"At the end of the day faith is a funny thing. It turns up when you don't really expect it. It's like one day you realize that the fairy tale may be slightly different than you dreamed. The castle, well, it may not be a castle. And it's not so important happy ever after, just that its happy right now. See once in a while, once in a blue moon, people will surprise you , and once in a while people may even take your breath away."

Tomorrow morning, I'll walk into the University of Mississippi Medical Center for the last day of the "beginning" of my medical education. I'll walk out Tuesday a private practice physician, with the land of academia behind me.

If you happen to be one of the people I cross along my journey tomorrow, just smile and be a little more gentle. I'm piling a lot of memories in this 24 hours.

I'll start by parking where I parked exactly 8 years ago preparing for orientation to my first day of medical school - excited and terrified. I'll have to walk past that first classroom (where biochemistry owned me) and that bathroom I cried in a lot. Then I'll walk past the newborn office (I'll stop by there Tuesday morning to clean my desk off) much like I did many days during med school, praying I'd be behind that door someday.

As I journey towards the nursery for my last experience rounding (with Dr. Mink), i'll pass the Peds Lounge and offices... where I spent hours upon hours in the last 4 years, learning how to save other people - and myself. When we lost patients, when I lost family members... we loved on each other and held each other up behind those walls.

I'll spend the day and night with my littlest loves and some of my best coworkers. I wish I could tell you all exactly what I'd learned from you and what part you'd played in this journey, but I'm not strong enough. Just know I'll always have you all in my thoughts and prayers, and I'll always be grateful for the opportunity to love on babies with you.

Most of all, I'll have as many moments of quiet reflection as possible. In learning how to save others, I lost myself. But much more importantly, and much more proudly, God brought me back to a place of joy, blessing, and love.

I could pour my heart out for hours, and I'd never help you all understand what the last eight years has meant to me. From the day I answered God's call into medicine until tomorrow when He brings me back home to love on His people in my community, it's been a journey marked by unknown blessings that were so much bigger than anything I humanly could've imagined.

So I'll take one more moment to make a plea: If God isn't first in your life, put Him there. He will do amazing things more than you've ever imagined. If you're not sure how to do that, find me tomorrow. There's no greater send-off I'd like to give than you a life with my Eternal Creator. I'll love all of you forever - keep saving babies. And keep saving yourselves.