February 2005

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I watch ER almost religiously. I hate it. I think it’s a terrible show. I mean, it may have been friggin’ awesome in its heyday with Clooney and the gang, but it’s all gone to pot nowadays. So I suppose I should really say that I watch it because it’s a terrible show. The haughtiness in me likes to play holier-than-thou and scream out every technical error with a combination of sarcasm and glee. It makes me feel medically superior. Because, watch out wide world, this gal’s gonna be a doctor in one year. Now, if only I could convince myself that it were true. Me, a doctor. Craziness.

We all play a front, sometimes more for our benefit than theirs. It’s easier to believe what everyone else believes, even if you have to create it from scratch. Deep down, I’m still a fraud. Put me in a hospital, and I exude competence. Scary, isn’t it?

It makes me wonder about the rest of them—everyone else. That the uber-confident, fantastically good-looking, and insanely smart M may be just as insecure as I am underneath it all. But, my gawd, can he put on a show.

I guess I’d like to believe that “faking it” is rather a work in progress. Afterall, in the end, you are you pretend to be.

You never know
When you meet someone,
Will she be the one?
You never know,
and I wonder to myself,
I wonder to myself,
Are you beautiful?
On the inside?

— Chris Pierce, Are You Beautiful

I saw J the other day. He was on his way to the library—tall, brows furrowed, and ridiculously handsome. I ducked behind the oversized tropical topiary. I couldn’t let him see me wild-haired in ill-fitting scrubs (my rear looked a mile wide). All of the sudden, the composure I thought I had a firm grasp on was gone. I was twelve years old again, and Dear Diary, the crush I once had on him came rushing back with a vengeance.

We had gone to undergrad together, studied together, applied to medical school together, and had gotten in—only I had gotten in two years eariler than him. I was his senior now. I could potentially be tutoring him in the months to come. Only, I didn’t think I’d actually run into him. Of course, I had my daydreams. The one where I was gorgeous, and he knew it.

J.” I would say. “How have you been?
Damn, woman,” he’d reply, “when did you become so beautiful?

And then I stopped. Steve. That was when. The flirt sputtered, and then it’s gone. I slunk out from behind the oversized topiary. One of the branches snagged my hair, messing it ever more wild. My rear was a mile wide. But Steve, he was the boy man that couldn’t find any words for me the night we met. And when he smiled, I couldn’t find any words for him. Breathless. That was when I first felt beautiful. And it wasn’t J.

The moment passed. J slipped into the library, without ever noticing this silly little Asian girl outside. I was glad.