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The year started on hospital wards for me. On January 1st, 2019 at 6am, I arrived to work on that dark, winter morning and sat down in excited anticipation of 5 months remaining in my formal medical training. I logged into the EMR with quiet reverence that I will be independently performing this exact job later this same year with no formal supervision. It was a sobering thought. This month, the way in which I practiced medicine changed. Or maybe I just acknowledged how I have matured as a caregiver and physician. This last month, I had so many end of life discussions with patients, held their hands as they shared their wishes for their last few days/weeks. I have so many stories to share. From the daughter who embraced me before her mother was discharged home, tears rolling over her cheeks, and thanking me over and over again for making her mom better (thinking about this still makes tears well in my eyes). To the husband that broke down in sobs and gasps of overwhelming sorrow as his wife of 51 years was dying of metastatic cancer. To the family that yelled at me at the top of their lungs because they had no other way of expressing their fear over their father’s terminal diagnosis. It was a month of devastating heartache, inspiring hope and true humanity. Human suffering is so real. At times, it is overwhelmingly so… But there is no doubt that being privy and witness to it in such an intimate manner has made me a more patient, compassionate, thoughtful, generous human. What a privilege it is to serve my fellow humans. To be let in it with them like this. It has given me the opportunity to be truly present in my life, and to ask: How can we live in the moment and take everything we can out of the goodness it can hold for us?