The magnitude of an adventure can mask the small personal areas of growth and discovery. As I embark on my 10 week fellowship at National Lutheran Communities and Services (NLCS) I realize the scope of experiences, new acquaintances, and potential the fellowship offers. I am spending my summer working at the Village at Rockville (TVAR), a National Lutheran Community located thirty minutes out of DC in Rockville Maryland. TVAR is a continuing care retirement community offering assisted and independent living, memory care, and short term rehabilitation.
My time is split between several long term projects. One of my main objectives focuses on the
development of a clinic expansion project at TVAR. Additionally, I work with the medical staff, including the Doctors and Nurses, to develop improved means of communication and documentation in the medical record keeping system. During my first two weeks, I have been introduced to many of the colleagues I will be working with at TVAR and in the corporate office. The staff is truly committed to enriching the lives of the residents and inspiring those around. The culture at NLCS fosters transparency and inspires me to think outside of what has been traditionally accepted.
I live in a cottage at TVAR, traditionally purposed for independent living residents. While my neighbors are from a different generation, the wisdom and hospitality they offer is unmatched. For example, the couple living next door has been married for over seventy years and refer to me as their “son”.
Living independently in a new part of the country, surrounded by an unfamiliar field of medicine, and given the opportunity to contribute to meaningful and important corporate projects, amplifies the scale of this fellowship. It is easy to become enveloped in the enormity of all the possibilities this fellowship has in store, dreaming about how my time at TVAR will impact the future. Yet with this mindset, the small personal areas of growth and discovery can often be missed.
To illustrate this point, my fellowship description did not include a project area that I strongly wanted to pursue. I redeveloped several of the objectives and presented my focus to the executive director who openly encourage the direction I desired to follow. Finding my voice in a new environment and position was a small area of personal growth in the larger journey.
The interactions I have with neighbors or the weekend trips into DC can easily melt into the grand scheme of summer. I am personally driven by moving on to the next plan or objective, and I miss those moments where I experience a small personal area of discovery. Taking the extra time to appreciate the moment and recognizing those personal discoveries is a primary focus of my summer. I hope to recognize the small areas that often go unseen, where I can lead and serve at TVAR and in my community.
On a different note, I am elated to serve at TVAR and absorb all that Washington DC has to offer. From the happy hours with new friends to Jazz in the Park, I look forward to relationships I build and the personal areas of growth that contribute to my ability to lead and serve in the future. Within two weeks, I am affirmed that my experience at TVAR will advance my quality of care as a future doctor and unearth new areas of personal discovery along the journey.