One year later…

I’ve been thinking about this post for a few weeks now. Anticipating it, smiling about it, even stressing about it. It’s been one year since I started this blog, and I feel obligated to write about it.

I think that there are a few reasons for my muddled emotions about writing this post. I wanted to write about how far this blog has come in one year, how happy I am to have found a space to write and share my thoughts. I wanted to thank my more than 1500 followers, a supportive community of people that I had never expected to find. And I wanted to once more express my amazement and appreciation about just how far my thesis research project has come and how excited I am to be teaching my own course about illness narratives this semester.

Intertwined with all these joys and accomplishments, however, are the confusions and  hesitations that remain. I haven’t quite figured out where I fit into the fields of narrative medicine and medical humanities, but I find myself drawing away from both of these disciplinary labels. I’m not sure how exactly I will preserve my interests in this interdisciplinary arena, but I am determined to integrate this passion throughout medical school and beyond.

I was finally motivated to write this post, to reflect on how fulfilling this blog has been and recognize how much more I need to write through, because I realized that this is just where I should be. Writing blog posts in my head has become something that I just do, but I’m also glad that I haven’t found the answers to all my questions just yet. I guess that’s what this year will be for: finding more answers, and asking even more questions.