Day One: Lesson Learned

First day at work, I’m walking a kid back to his room because it’s time to start his chemo. He’s dragging his left foot because he had a stroke when he was born, but it’s not slowing him down. I’m supporting him and his oxygen tank and dragging his IV pole where his morphine drip hangs and the blood I’ve been transfusing has just finished. He’s making me laugh, and then tells me if we were racing I most certainly would have lost. I tell him that’s not fair – he’s much younger than me and my hands are full. He pauses, only briefly, looks right at me with kind eyes, and says with a shrugging smile, “Well, life’s not fair,” before finishing the race back to his room. Yep.