About 17 years ago, Bethany, a former patient of mine, asked if she could shadow me for three months at my office. She had just finished her premed course at the University of Maine. She wanted to apply to a medical school.
January comes from the Latin Januarius, the first month of the year in the Gregorian calendar, so named to honor Janus, the two-faced Roman god of beginnings and transitions, and of doors and doorways. At midnight last Dec. 31, my family and I were on the 28th-floor helipad of a building in Makati watching fireworks sparkle all over the city. From this vantage point we compared competing fireworks from Ayala and Rockwell and welcomed 2013 with shouts, hugs and kisses. We had transitioned from the old year into a new one with hope.
