The Liebster Blog Award

Applications for medical school and residency usually contain a space where applicants may list the awards they've received for academic or professional achievement and it's usually at this point my hard-earned self-esteem takes a nose dive. Apart from a couple of work-related "pats on the back" and Scouting's Order of the Arrow, I don't have a lot to report. I'm just guessing, but it's doubtful committees are interested in my horse and I having taken third place in Western and English Equitation at Denver's National Western Stock Show when I was 13.

One never knows, perhaps I ought to list some of those accomplishments for good measure. But, in general, I'm assuming they'd prefer to know whether I managed a summa cum or summa cum laude or was recognized for an outstanding something or other. The truth is, I must have been out, literally standing in a field when they were handed over, because I ain't got any of 'em.

I'm not complaining, though, because the sparsity of awards has made me appreciate those I've been given all that much more -- rather like the one appended below. I'm deeply grateful to everyone who's visited this website over the past three years, validating my desire to write and have what I've written, be read. That in itself really is recognition enough; when someone decides it deserves an award, I'm blown away -- so much so that it takes me a week to get up the nerve to make it public. Pride goeth before a fall, says the writer of Proverbs, and the last thing I want to do is fall flat on my face, tooting my own horn. That said, I'd like to express my sincere thanks to rosewiththorns, author of but I'm beautiful, for her kindness in nominating my blog for The Liebster Award.

I'd also like to thank my mother, my father, my make-up artist, my fellow actors, my dogs and cat, and last, but not least, the Academy of Motion Pictures...oops, sorry, wrong speech. Seriously, please visit rose's blog as well as the others I've listed below as worthy of receiving a Liebster Award. And, as always, thanks for reading.

Trust Me, I'm a...Resident, written by one of my classmates who is currently a resident in Family Medicine in Pennsylvania.

Surviving Medical School and Motherhood, by another of my classmates, sharing her experiences juggling children and husband with one hand and medical school with the other.

Cafe of the Cosmic Dance, by Paul Sunstone. Although Liebster Awards typically go to blogs with less than 20 followers, I'd like to pass on the link anyway in the hope you'll find his writing as enjoyable as I do.

Garnet's Virtual Salon, by a pharmacist and fellow Mainer who lives in the mountains near the Maine-New Hampshire border and drives a Camaro -- wow.

The Student Epicure, written by a Massachusetts med student who has a way with food that I hope translates into medical magic once she's graduated and joined the work force of resident physicians.

The Liebster Blog Award