Life and Death-1

Is This the End?

I hope you all enjoy the last chapter of Life and Death!!! The second book Mending Broken Hearts will be published soon.

From an early age, I always knew I wanted to do something more with my life. For a long time, I thought I was going to be an astronaut and find sustainable life outside of Earth. That all stopped when I realized I have severe motion sickness and claustrophobia. All of these things that turned me away from space. On top of that my oldest brother Frankie snuck me into to see Aliens vs Predators when I was six and I was scared ever since. Medicine didn't find it's way into my heart until I was a sophomore in college. I was dead set on going to Law school and joining a firm that dealt with immigration or some non-profit organization. That all changed when my classmate kept asking me for help with their anatomy homework and for the entire semester I helped him study despite not taking the class myself. I fell in love when I saw what our body is capable of and what limits we can push it. The human body is something miraculous. I never believed in magic until I found medicine and then I realized anything is possible.

My family was less than thrilled when I changed my major and focused on how to get into medical school. Changing my career meant I would spend an extra year in undergrad and spend the majority of my twenties and thirties perfecting my craft. I never regretted it a second. I found who I was with medicine. It made me realize I'm stronger than I have ever given myself credit for. I can do things I never thought possible and the people who are my competitors, mentors, and friends have all become my family. They understood me even when my own family didn't and it's wonderful to have them by my side.

Life is full of what-if possibilities. If I had done this differently would I be where I am today? If I had jumped straight into the deep end would I have spent six years of being happy or would I have been miserable? No one can tell you how your life will be. You can only take it one step at a time and hope you have some damn good people with you when you're too afraid to take the plunge into the darkness.

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"Okay where are...where is it damnit!"

"Cristina!" Meredith motions to the children in the room.

"They have no idea what I said anyway." Cristina defends her choice of words.

"It's okay Mer, they have heard a lot worse." I assure her. "What are you looking for?" I ask Cristina unsure of what this commotion from her is about.

"Ah found it!" Cristina comes over to us holding a bottle of tequila.

"What?"

"Come on we're celebrating." Cristina finds some plastic cups and pours the three of us a drink.

"Celebrating with tequila?" I ask her and she nods with a giant smile on her face.

"It's what we do."

"I'll cheer to that." Meredith raises her glass and we follow suit. "I am thankful to have the two of you in my life and...I wouldn't have it any other way."

"I second that and..." Cristina turns to me with a giant grin on her face. "We're happy for you Gen. You and Mark are going to have a wonderful life together."

"Thank you." We clink the plastic cups together and then down the alcohol that burns our throats. "Ahh." We shake our heads. "Why do we do this?" I ask but strangely I want more.

"Because it's fun."

"Ooh look. Cheer." I look over and see my niece and nephew imitating us with their juice boxes and making the hissing sound as they take a sip. Cristina and Meredith are dying with laughter.

"Did I..." I look to my friends with my mouth gaping open.

"They so..."

"My sister is going to kill me." I groan.