We stumbled out of the tavern's soft light, accompanied by the applause of friends who no doubt thought I was taking a piss - into the darkness of the street, and carried by drunkenness and the animating spirit of our youth, stopping only to vomit into the gutter once or maybe twice, we lurched our debauched way up the hill to the medical school, and in the shadows stole past the snoring old guard, into the cadaver room.
I remember the spark to the night, cold as it was. I remember the extravagant stars strewn across the sky. I remember the euphoria, being not just on a quest, but on a drunken quest, and together, best of friends in that moment.
If only we had stayed in that moment.
"Preservation is a neutral thing," my mother told me once. "It prolongs a state that already exists. It h
