Lindsay Day!! Amanda Zwilling

Happy Lindsay Day!  Today was an aptly beautiful, sunny Sunday in New York, spent outside.  My family spent the morning at the National Tourette Syndrome Association 5K - Jane is very appreciative that you held off rain until tomorrow J

A few weeks ago, Jen, my mom, and I had dinner with Lindsay’s mom, Billie, while she was in New York. I am so, so grateful that Lindsay had the type of relationship with her parents and Brandon that allows me to still be in their lives today. Billie always asks what all of Lindsay’s friends are up to, and genuinely wants to know the amazing things that everyone is doing.  Thank you to all of you who took this opportunity to help fill everyone in.

I’m living in Williamsburg (Brooklyn) and midway through my Ph.D in Clinical Neuropsychology (sounds a lot nerdier than it is – I promise). While I can’t credit Lindsay with my decision to go into this field, my friendship with Lindsay has impacted my experience more than I’d really realized before I sat down to write this post. I’ve always worked with kids, which would surprise no one. In fact, on my interview day at my program, one of the faculty members approached me and just stared at me point blank and said, “you’re a peds person, aren’t you?” with detectable disdain. He explained that 1, he hates working with children, and 2, that there is a visible quality common to all peds people.  And while I am still passionate about working with kids, Lindsay opened my eyes to the unique experiences of young adults. I learned so much from Lindsay’s enthusiastic approach to life, survivorship, and perseverance, and I am honored to have her as an inspiration.

More importantly, though, I learned from Lindsay how to mess up. It’s easy to draw inspiration from Lindsay’s unrelenting battle, and strive to be a warrior like she was, making sure that you make every moment count. It was even simple to learn about perspective, and understand what’s important; Lindsay taught me the true importance of family, friendship, and happiness. What took me longer to figure out, though, was that it’s okay NOT to always be flawless (to borrow Lindsay’s inspiration word, which greeted her every time she turned on her Motorola RAZR). Lindsay taught me that sometimes, it’s okay to prioritize fun, and when you feel like you’ve messed up, it usually isn’t as bad as it seems. In short, my friendship with Lindsay taught me that not everything needs to be taken super seriously, but when something does, I better realize. Lindsay taught me that sometimes, it’s the less obvious things that will end up having the biggest impact.

LAR – as everyone has said time and time again, you are immensely missed, but also immensely remembered. You continue to impact the way we each live our lives every single day. Happy, happy, birthday, tall friend.  I love you infinitely. 

xxxxx,

zwill