Wow. What a day. One of the proudest days of my life next to my White Coat Ceremony.

Today was the Body Donor Memorial Service. The culmination of 8 months of planning interspersed with stress and worry. Now that it's done and even during the event, the stress seems so petty. But it affected me at the time. I don't get stressed in terms of academics, but when it comes to extracurriculars where I have responsibilities to other people - I get gray hairs. And for this event, we're talking about 500 people I had to please and 140 body donors I had to honor. This is an extremely important event.

And it went great. Nearly perfectly. And way beyond my expectations. I was on top of everything today - running around, tending to what needed to be tended to. But at the same time, I feel like the event just happened. It still doesn't fit together in my mind that my hard work (with the invaluable help of others) created the wonderful event that everyone is praising and thanking me for. But I know - I know it was my leadership that made today possible and everything happened the way it was supposed to happen. And I'm so high on life right now.

Besides everything running very smoothly, the event was also beyond my expectations because of all the people who approached me afterwards.

- I hugged a man I've never met before when he told me he was a future body donor, and his wife who had Alzheimer's was a body donor last year. He was attending his "living funeral." The healthiest 94 year-old I've ever seen.

- A veteran thanked me for including the military honors (not my idea), and I got to thank him for his service. The military honors was such a great addition to the memorial service, I don't know how this was the first memorial service to have it. My good friend Melissa teared up because her grandpa had military honors at his funeral.

- The PR guy for UCDMC, who I've been in touch with since February, brought his girlfriend to meet me. Her father donated his body...this past September 11th.

- There was a hauntingly beautiful display of an old nurse uniform with a wool cape and the old-school nurse hats. And next to it was an old black-and-white picture of a nurse wearing that exact hat. I got to meet her family and her teenage granddaughters told me they loved the event.

There were several other family members and so many classmates and staff from the Body Donation Program that said thank you and good job to me. It's hard to think of another time in my life where I accomplished something this great.

Funny to think that I was filled with such self-doubt and that I accidentally fell into this leadership position. Oh universe, you tend to be so good to me.

I will leave you now with kind words from my classmates.

Hey Jenny.

I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed the service this morning. I wasn't able to attend the one last year, and was so impressed with how polished it was. I know it meant a lot to both the med students and families of those who donated. Thanks for doing such a great job putting everything together.

-Eric


What an amazing memorial service for our incredible body donors. It was a beautiful way to honor these generous individuals. Thanks to all the organizers and performers, with a special shout out to Jenny Phung for all your hard work. (Erin's facebook status)



Hi Jenny,

Just wanted to thank you for the hard work you put in for the Memorial Service this morning. I can imagine that was quite time consuming and I really appreciate it. I'm also very impressed how supportive your boyfriend was of you. You guys make a great couple.

Best,
Hasmik


Of course I had to end with that one. lol