Explaining the title

You know, I had been toying with the idea of doing this for a while now, but always sort of just shrugged it off as a "why bother?" kind of thing. But then, of course, a friend comes along and starts blogging, and for some reason that finally gives me the kick in the pants that I needed to get started. Sorry, Sara, hope you don't mind!

Anyhow, I guess a little explanation is in order before I head off to bed (heaven forbid I do anything at a regular hour!). As I sat contemplating a title for this thing, my thoughts ranged far and wide. I liked the Latin title to Sara's blog (Quo Vadis?), but my attempts to come up with anything equally cool (especially given my pathetic background in Latin) were fruitless. So I started ruminating, just letting my thoughts wander, and dusted off a number of old memories. At first, they didn't seem to have much in common, but after contemplating a few, I realized that each of them represented a time that I considered important to me. They weren't necessarily big events; there were memories of sunsets on the rocks in Mattapoisett and starry evenings on the hill in Still River in addition to the vocations retreat at the House of Studies and the White Coat Ceremony here at Pitt. Each of those moments was the result of a choice, and each of those moments played a role in who I've become. And so the concept of "Defining Moments" was born (except it became "Defining Moment" because of character limits...oh well!). *edit: apparently the character limit only applies when you first name the blog. It's fixed now!* As far as the second part of the title, well, there are a couple of things to say about that. First, I wanted it to be unique and memorable, and with millions of bloggers already spilling their guts to the e-world, unique is a tad hard to come by. Second, I wanted to make a point. In terms of my identity, the two things I see as being most central to who I am are my faith and my profession (well, technically my future profession, I suppose). The order is not accidental: I'm a Catholic first and a future physician (and EM wannabe) second. I'm sure that (assuming I continue to post and this doesn't end up being a one-time deal) this will be the root of much contemplation and reflection in the years to come.

So that's the story of my blog title. At this point, I'm running out of things to say and running out of energy and attention to writing keep coherent the. Thus, I'm off for now.

Peace and God bless!