Thank you...

To the lady that bumped into me as I was carrying two cups of Starbucks double mocha macchiato on my way to chat with my mother on the marble courts surrounding the Holy Mosque of Madinah…

Thank you for drenching my niqab in chocolate and filling my limited air space during sujood with that wonderful aroma...

That was before..

A few years ago I used to confuse between "lingual" and "palatal" until I finally realized they were synonyms...

A few years ago I would mix up between "oligo-" and "poly-".. the world of medical prefixes and suffixes was a mystery to me…

A few years ago studying the muscles of facial expression would bring me to tears.. was it "orbicularis oris" that was around the orbit and "orbicularis oculi" that surrounded the mouth.. or vice versa?

A few years ago the medical dictionary was my best friend.. "sialolith", "gastrectomy" and "rhinorrhea" were looked up several times.. till the pages became worn out…

A few years ago I would quaver when dissecting a rat as I put the spleen aside to observe the pancreas…

A few years ago I would hold back the nausea as I removed the skull cap from the cadaver to examine the dural venous sinuses…

A few years ago I would stare at a radiograph of the skull and know nothing about it except that it wasn't an image of the femur…


That was then…

Now I know…
Now I can…