Visiting the City

While I tried to limit my visits to the city so I could fully enjoy the rural medicine experience, I found myself wanting to go home and I recognized how much my family meant to me.

As I explained in the reasons why I signed up for the ICC, I was very interested in living in rural Alberta since I had already spent most of my life in Edmonton. My life circumstances were favorable to spending a block of time not only to be away from home, but also to immerse myself in a new community. As much as I could, I stayed in Hinton on the weekends to meet local people and participate in the local activities.

On average, I went back to Edmonton once or twice a month. For the first few months, I limited my visits to a few selected events, such as weddings or med school social gatherings. And since I was in the city, I’d pick up things for my place in Hinton, get a haircut from my barber, squeeze in a few coffee visits, maybe grab a bite at a local eatery, and stock up on groceries for cheap. I was in and out and usually on the go.

Though my family lives in Edmonton, I’ll admit that I didn’t spend very much time at home at first. I talked with my parents via phone; I kept in touch with my brothers via text messaging or Skype. Since I was already putting time in those relationships, I rationalized that I could spend my limited time in the city elsewhere before I had to drive back to Hinton.

I continued in this pattern of thinking until the end of the Christmas break when I was hit hard as I stepped back into my condo in Hinton. I wanted to get right back into the swing of my independent life, but I couldn’t shake the sinking emptiness of being in a house without a sense of home. I had been home but didn’t actively enjoy what I had until I left. As much as I enjoyed the tranquility of my own place, I missed the hum of a bustling home.

So then I started to come back for the sake of my family. It didn’t require having something big going on to bring me back – we would do something as simple as running errands together or sitting around the kitchen table making spring rolls. I grew to recognize that maintaining relationships requires presence.

A freshly-cooked batch of the famous Lê family spring rolls!

One of my favorite visits was from my parents. By that point, it was a few months into my stay, and I increasingly missed my parents’ home-cooked food. They brought a bunch of ingredients so we could make a meal together. I was already content when my condo smelled like home! Cooking with my parents reminded me of a quote from a talk by one of my favorite speakers, Ravi Zacharias:

We need to build memories into the lives of our children so that they’ll go through certain ceremonies and symbols in their lives which they will miss once they have left home, and it will be a memory for them as long as they live.

Dad shaping some meat balls for a Vietnamese noodle dish.

The four-color vermicelli noodle bowl – a classic Vietnamese meal.