Aspiration...

I think to most people, the term "aspiration" generally has positive connotations.

It means ambition. The desire to accomplish something great.

But in a hospital, the word "aspiration" brings to chills to everyone's spine.

If someone might have aspiration we do all kinds of stuff to stop it.

We might shove a tube down their trachea and have a machine breathe for them if we think there's a risk of aspiration.

And if a kid comes in with aspiration... it's truly an ordeal!

Cause, in layman's terms, aspiration means you done breathed some vomit or somethin' into yo lungs that don't belong there. Those were layman's terms, North Florida style.

Working at hospitals has destroyed the word "aspiration" for me, and it has coincidentally taken a toll on my aspirations in medicine in ways too convoluted to describe at this moment.

Some days, I feel that if choosing a career was like picking something from a menu at a restaurant, I'd send this dish back and ask for something more tasty. I'd also make sure that my new order would actually be worth the price. Or maybe, I'd just get up and leave and never come back to the restaurant.

Damn I'm hungry now.