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24 Kentucky
| Fall 2021 | www.kentuckydoc.com
In for a
Penny By Torie Osborne, UK COM 4th year medical student I am defined by the people who made me. I am my Mother’s determination and my Father’s inquisitiveness. I am my Nanny’s empathy and Paw’s selflessness. I am a proud daughter of Eastern Kentucky and its beautiful quilt of mountains, fried chicken, and fiddle music. Throughout my life, I’ve often taken pride in the title of “student” and now, with the transition to “doctor,” I question whether I’m worthy of the title. There was a time when I questioned my worth concerning any title. In 2017, before medical school started, I was racing away to Florida in an attempt to find out who I was on my own. It was during this time that I discovered my knack at finding pennies, or rather it may have discovered me. I prayed that God would send me pennies, one a day for an entire week, to show me that I was on the right path. I easily found a penny the first three days, but when day four came and went without a penny, I became discouraged. Days five and six passed me by and I became further disillusioned. On Day seven however, I found four pennies scattered about a vacant parking spot.
Since that day, finding pennies has become my touchstone. I followed my path of pennies right into the University of Kentucky’s College of Medicine and they haven’t led me astray yet. Abraham Lincoln’s copper face has guided me through exams, patient encounters, and tricky attending physicians. Now, they begin to guide me through another set of big decisions. If you had asked me five years ago where I would end up practicing medicine, I would have told you I didn’t know. I have skillfully avoided the question, “Are you coming back home?” on many occasions. A blessing in disguise, COVID-19 interrupted my regularly scheduled medical school programming and I found myself scouring First Aid in-between home cooked meals and much needed family time. As I sat in my childhood room, I looked around and realized that there is nowhere that I would rather be. I wanted to be home. On a hot summer’s day, I found myself, and the rest of my extended family, surrounding a tree at my Father’s childhood home. This was the first time I had been there. It was tucked away in a holler. A winding gravel road wound around until eventually coming to a stop
