One Day, One Room

Dr. Gregory House: They're out there, doctors, lawyers, postal workers, some of them doing great, some of them doing lousy. Are you going to base your whole life on who you got stuck in a room with?

Eve: I'm going to base this moment on who I'm stuck in a room with. It's what life is. It's a series of rooms and who we get stuck in those rooms with adds up to what our lives are.

- from House M.D.


Last year, I went to Korea in the middle of summer for a program to improve my Korean. Before I left, I considered what would happen in terms of the people I would meet. I thought to myself that, in all likelihood, I would meet new people, make new friends, hang out with them for six weeks, then ... most likely not meet them again. I mean, it's Korea I'm going to. What would be the chances of meeting someone I met at the program again? The chances of keeping in touch with them?

Of course, the answer to the latter question is now pretty obvious because I met someone from Amherst class of 2012 there. But the other is still compelling. I'm still facebook friends with the people I did meet in Korea, but we don't talk much. Josh comments on these things once in a while, but that's the extent of it.

But, before I went to Korea, it didn't bother me that it wasn't likely that I wouldn't really keep in touch with any of them. Now, that doesn't mean I don't want to hang out with them or anything. It just means that the temporary nature of it wouldn't take anything away from it. Just because we would hang out together just for the summer and then be scattered didn't mean we couldn't be as close or that it would take anything away from the time we had together. In life, we run into people all time. Some people we see our entire lives, others, only for one day or even one minute. But, during that minute, that person can be a big part of our lives.

I'm thinking about this once again because I'm about to go to an internship in Portland, Maine as a research assistant for an autism and developmental disabilities program at a hospital. And though I think I am the only intern for my supervisor, I am bound to meet other volunteers or interns there. I mean, there have to be pre-med kids, right?

What will happen then? Will I make friends with them like I did in Korea? Will I keep in touch with them if I do? What will happen after we all leave?

Maybe the right question is, does it matter? Because I'll just do the same as I've always done and be the same person that I always am. I am not going to act differently just because it's a ten-week internship rather than a career path. I'm going to be stuck in a (figurative) room with other interns for the ten weeks that I'm there. In those moments, that's what my life will be. And that's what I'll base what I do on.

And then, I'll go on to the next room. And the next. And the next.