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Happy birthday, Maffrew!


Today is my brother Matthew's 23rd birthday!

(My family prefers to have birthdays exclusively in the months of April and November.) 

 At some point, I started calling Matthew "Maffrew," which has subsequently been shortened to "Frew." I don't really know how that started, but I don't think he minds. At least, I think he prefers it to "Math," which is what one of his kindergarten classmates called him. ("Can I call you Math?" "No." "Hi, Math!")
{me at 5-1/2, with baby Frew}

When my parents told my older brothers and me that we were going to have another sibling, I promptly began to pray each night for a sister. In spite of the fact that my prayers were not answered, I wasn't all that disappointed in the end (as you may be able to tell from the picture). He even let me dress him up in a tutu and teach him ballet positions, so I really wasn't deprived at all. 

 We have missed him a lot since moving away from Omaha, but we were lucky to have him visit in October. The non-visiting brothers should be jealous, because we had a lot of fun and ate some great food (notably, we ate some of the best hot dogs ever).
{genius! a hot dog with mac and cheese!
perhaps not the healthiest of foods, but
it was a delicious "special occasion" meal.
Frew got one with a fried egg on top!}
{after a tour of the U.S.S. Constellation in
Baltimore's Inner Harbor}
Matthew is currently in the process of figuring out his "next step" in life. (Who isn't?) Coincidentally, today I solicited advice on how to do just that from Dr. Al Sommer, with whom I have been wanting to meet since coming to JHSPH. Dr. Sommer has been extremely successful throughout his career and has been credited with saving literally hundreds of thousands of lives each year. His response to my question about how to decide what to do in life was simple: 

"I always tell people: you're going to have forks in the road. 
That's the nature of life. 
Rather than agonize over it, which is what people usually do, 
just do whatever is most exciting to you at that moment. 
Later, if it doesn't turn out to be as exciting as you thought, 
you can do something else!"

I appreciated his non-fatalistic perspective and his belief that, if given the opportunity to choose, a person should do what he or she enjoys and avoid "trying to do a randomized controlled trial to make life decisions." I am confident that Matthew will make a good decision and that he will be wildly successful no matter what he chooses to do. (Matthew, you won't be disappointed if you click on that link.)


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Location: Baltimore, MD, USA

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