Why stop there?

 A step, only one, is all it takes to start. A single step And just like that, Before you know it You’re walking a path that was not there before In front of you now, hard to ignore. It’s not very clear, not well defined You might have to walk some parts of it blind. Perhaps very winding, Certainly long But you need to keep stepping and travel along. At times you’ll feel scared “What if I fall? Will I end up crawling or will I walk tall? Will it lead me to where I always wanted to go?  Could I run fast, or should I tread slow? Is this path the right one, do I belong? Here just for a day or is it lifelong?” No one can tell you - it’s for you to find out What walking it means, what it will bring about. Despite all the doubts, Deep down you know  That walk it you must, How else will you grow? Who else if not you? When else if not now? Breath in, take one step and find out how. V. Azarov

I still remember the car ride home after dropping my dad off at the airport at the end of his visit one fateful day in early January 2020. The day of the "life-changing decision", as I like to dramatically refer to it. Suddenly I broke down in tears, knowing that this was happening – I had made up my mind then and there after a lifetime of waiting and believing it to be out of reach. How do you go about it? Where do you even start? How do you get accepted to medical school with four kids, with zero science background and insufficient finances to support the costs of such an endeavor? How would we make it work as a family? All I knew back then was that I had to try no matter what. It was then or never. I didn't want to spend the rest of my life regretting not giving it a shot. It was an enormously difficult decision, but one that my husband and mother-in-law wholeheartedly supported. They knew what it meant to me. And it meant the world. At the time, I had been livin...