Our Doctor Friends
We have these friends who we met through the wedding of another, mutual friend. Since the day we met them, they seemed impossibly happy together. True, they were relative newlyweds at the time, but it's pretty hard to deny that these two have a certain chemistry that you just don't see in many couples. As we got to know David and Mindi (or, as we've always referred to them, the Drs. Beahm), they became a sort of embodiment of our ideal couple.
Time went on, and as with all great things, our time with David and Mindi came to an end. Emily and I headed to Gainesville, where Emily was to pursue her PhD. The Drs. Beam, meanwhile, were finishing up with med school and starting to look at residency programs. From what I understand, residency is a pretty tricky thing to figure out under the best of circumstances. Finding the best school for your chosen specialty - that you can get into, I mean - involves crisscrossing the country to interview and rub elbows and generally try to make the best impression you can. However, navigating this process as a couple, with both of you trying to find the best places where you both can do residency work, makes a number on the roulette wheel look like good odds by comparison.
David and Mindi went through this process, and did the best they could to land in the same place, and have that place be a worthwhile opportunity for both of them. Now, a few years and a major hurricane down the road, they spend much of their time at opposite ends of the state. When they do spend time together, it's often bounded by their fast-paced, high-pressure environments to such an extent that I don't imagine they can slow down enough to catch up with one another's lives, much less regain that rare quality of closeness that used to inspire Emily and me so much.
I guess the upshot is that every time we hear from these two, I realize just how wrapped up in my own life I am; how wrapped up I am in telling myself these stories of self-pity, of my own hardships...and how easy I really have it. I get to have lunch almost every day with Emily. Almost any time I want to, I can walk no more than ten paces and just say 'Hi' to her. We both work hard, and sometimes put in pretty long hours; but we also have the extreme luxury of falling asleep in the same bed most nights. I absolutely adore my wife of four years, and there's little that would break my heart like having to spend that kind of time away from her. Sometimes, I tell people that I had a job where I travelled quite a bit...but that's not true, not compared to some. Sometimes it's hard to believe there's any justice in the world, when David and Mindi have to be apart so much of the time.
I guess you can say that nothing worth having comes easy, and that "this too shall pass." So, rather than weep on about this any more, I'll just say this and be done:
Happy anniversary, David and Mindi. Here's hoping your time apart is no longer than necessary.