Surprise!

Ooohh my goodness. What a crazy weekend!! So on Wednesday my Mom let me know that my family from Canada were coming up for a short visit for the weekend. How nice! Gosh, I was super excited about that. An 8+ hour drive for the weekend? I felt so lucky that I would get to see them before heading out to med school.

We had such a blast together. Late night talks, long meals, even longer discussions... it was wonderful! After eating a huge lunch on Saturday and walking around the Chicago Botanical Garden, my cousin Rysio asked if I could take him to a computer store to check out some laptops for him. Sure! We walked around Best buy (which I feel like I could do forever; so much fun stuff that I can't afford) for over an hour. We played video games, chatted, and had a good time. I was glad that Rysio and I could have some one-on-one time together. After we left Best Buy, he asked if I could take him out for ice cream. No way! We were on our way to dinner at my brothers! No ice cream BEFORE dinner. :)

Jarek decided to drive us to the dinner at my brothers. I was a little annoyed at him because he was half an hour late (I hate being late!). I was worried that my sister-in-law, Gigi, would be annoyed for keeping everyone waiting. When we got to their house, the boys (my two nephews 10 and 8) were outside playing. They ran into the house and we went after them. When we walked through their new house for the first time (soo nice!), Gigi led me outside. When I stepped out to the porch all of a sudden..... SURPRISE!!!!



Instead of my parents,aunt, and uncle, there were 25+ people yelling surprise. Ohh my goodness!! I had absolutely NO idea what this was about. I was so shocked that I think I turned around at one point to see if this was for someone else. Wow! A surprise party for me? What? Wait, why? Haha. My closest family and friends had been planning a surprise graduation/going away party for me for weeks! And I didn't know about it! I'm usually soo good about guessing surprises or making my mom tell me, but I had no clue about this one! Ohhhh, so THAT'S why my family from Canada came up only for a few days. Ohhhh, so THAT'S why Rysio tried to stall at Best Buy and with ice cream. Ohh so that's why Jarek was late. Oh my goodness. I totally fell for it all! I was really touched by the party.

After four years of overcoming challenges at Smith by myself or with the help of my parents, it was really overwhelming to see such loving open support from my family and friends. Everyone wanted to congratulate me and wish me luck. Gosh, it was so amazingly wonderful!

I have to admit that I was stayed surprised throughout the night. Was this really for me? Wow, these people care about me so much. What did I do to deserve this? Wow! For one of the first times, I was really embarrassed to have so much attention on me! I really enjoyed being able to have one-on-one conversations with these old family and friends. They offered such sincere congratulations and such honest and caring advice. I was so grateful!! Some great advice: "Don't forget to have time for life; you are only young once so enjoy it while you can." "Don't forget to learn how to take care of patients that might not always be able to afford the best treatment."

My dad also gave a really nice speech during dinner for me. We may disagree a lot (out of our shared stubbornness) but there was no doubt in my mind that my dad and everyone there that night really loved me and cared about me. I feel so grateful for the love and support of my family and friends. I'm so grateful for all the effort that had to go into planning the party, coming to the party, and hosting the party. Thank you all so much. I couldn't think of a more perfect way to end the summer in Chicago.