Did 2015 really just happen?  Did I really just move to Colorado? Did I just become an avid skier and rock climber? Did I just ascend two mountains of 14,000 feet (4,267.2 meters)? Did I really just witness U2 with Bruce Springsteen and Paul Simon at Madison Square Garden?  Did I really just see the Foo Fighters at sunset in the middle of a large field in Germany? Did I really just visit Machu Picchu in Peru?

It’s hard to imagine how one can fit a lifetime of experiences into one calendar year.  I have to admit that I felt a lot of uncertainly and fear when I moved from sunny Florida to snowy Colorado back in February.  But with uncertainty comes great excitement in new explorations, and I am looking forward to a lot more adventures as I enter the 36th year of my life.

With all of the chaos and tragic news of this past year, let us not forget to cherish those precious moments we get to make.  Onwards to 2016! Now, let’s go out drinking somewhere tonight!

With all of the chaos and problems our world has endured this past year, I hope there is some time for all of us to reflect on peace and that all of us are grateful for the wonderful friends and family we have.

With that said, time to go ski!  I had a really bad fall on a run last weekend and if it were not for my goggles and helmet, I surely would have had a broken nose and loss of consciousness.   I am dying to get back on that run tomorrow and own it.

Merry Christmas and happy new year to all.  May you find peace and calm with family and friends.

It may still be 2015, but I am already planning my adventures for 2016.  I already went ahead and booked my flights to Oregon and California for early next year.

During the last week in January I will reunite with an old friend in Portland and then come back to Colorado to go ice climbing for the first time ever.  Should be fun.

In early March I will see as much of California as I can see in one and a half weeks and catch the Atlanta Hawks play a couple of games in Los Angeles.  Hopefully, they’ll be doing better than they are right now.

2015 is not over yet, and I still want to climb and ski as much as possible and hope to continue to get better at these things each week.

With every horrible thing happening in the world today such as wars, mass shootings in the U.S., and just everyday events, it is sometimes easy to forget those poorest among us who are usually the ones who are most affected by catastrophes.

Chennai, a city in Tamil Nadu, India, is the home town of my father and an important part of my childhood.  The city has been devastated by floods recently and approximately 200 people have perished in the floods with the death toll likely to rise.  These past days I have been thinking about my many family members who are there during this difficult time.

The people of Chennai are a wonderful, generous, and strong group of people, and I hope that they can recover from this.  I’ll try to help with whatever I can give, but I am also hoping to make a long awaited trip to Chennai sometime next year.  My last visit to India was over five years ago, and Chennai has and will remain to be my favorite place to visit in India.

Just as the people of Chennai reacted with kindness and generosity after the 2004 tsunami (as evidenced by the picture above of a kind gentleman feeding a stray dog), they will once again arise from these devastating events– but not without our help.

 

I told myself, I would never post anything about college football, let alone Georgia football, but I felt like I had to share my own Mark Richt story.  I have never met Mark Richt, but I clearly remember the first time I saw him on campus at the University of Georgia.

It was back in early 2001, and I was waiting in line at a blood drive to donate blood.  And suddenly I heard a couple of guys say, “There’s the new football coach.” I’ll never forget what he was wearing: a sweat suit with Nike sneakers.  This young 40 year old dude looked more like a college athlete instead of a coach.

Mark Richt had not even coached a game yet but was showing up already at events like this to show how much he cares about people.  I don’t know if he actually donated blood, but that moment was really poignant especially given the impact he had on the University and and the city of Athens.

It’s hard to believe how fast fifteen years can pass.  In the middle of Mark Richt’s tenure at Georgia, I managed to fit a European language in my head, travel the world, and become a doctor.  And in the middle of all of this and all the places I have seen, I never forgot that Athens, Georgia was my home.

I’m glad that Mark Richt was the coach of our football team all these years and wish him nothing but the best in his future endeavors.  At the same time, I’m looking forward to seeing who the new UGA football coach will be.  He’s going to have some pretty big shoes to fill.