so much to say

since my last post, months have passed, along with a couple milestones.

on friday, march 26th, i came home from my very last day of medical school.  c-r-a-z-y.  i went through some of my emails the other day, and found an email i had written to a few of my influential professors at westmont, informing them that i was on the verge of beginning medical school in dallas, texas and thanking them for all they done to help make that possible.  now, here i am, four years down the road — done!  as usual, it seems like i just started and at the same time seems like i have absolutely put in four years of hard work!

exactly eight days prior to that momentous last day of school, i received the letter of which every aspiring medical student dreams — and fears at the same time.  yes, march 18th was match day.  my match day.  if you don’t know what that is, i hear it’s quite similar to “rush” for sororities/fraternities.  [if you went to westmont, that doesn’t help at all, i know.]  anyways, all you need to know is that on that day, each fourth-year medical student across the united states receives a letter that tells them exactly where they will be spending the next 3 to 5 years — where they will become a surgeon/pediatrician/dermatologist/obstetrician/fill-in-the-blank.  you can get a little taste of my actual match day experience with this video of my class, from the local nbc news, and with these pictures taken by my loving photographer of a husband.

about 5 minutes before opening our letters

about 2 minutes after opening our letters — 

you may not believe this, but those are tears in my eyes

the letters

so what did my letter say, you ask?  [or you don’t, because you already know, considering it took me a month to blog about it!]  i’ll be training to be a pediatrician at my number one choice: children’s medical center in dallas, texas!  so as not to be too long-winded, here’s a summary of how we feel about that:

smiles:

-working at one amazing hospital — talented and kind staff, incomparable education, excellent patient care (one of the top ten children’s hospitals in the nation, according to u.s. news & world report)

-three more years with incredible friends who share our passions and who really brighten our life!

-three more years of a uniquely-perfect job for aaron, which also equals three more years of texans learning that caring about the environment is fun and important!

-paying off lots of student loans, partially thanks to affordable living in texas…

tears:

-three more years of being a [long] southwest airlines flight away from our wonderful families and life-long friends

-losing one of my very best friends to a sweet pediatrics program in houston, which has an international focus

-three more years without trader joe’s and peet’s coffee

-visions of buildings and highways, not mountains and beaches

so, with the news that we’ll be staying in dallas, we’ll be moving into a new apartment this weekend — a new apartment where aaron can get to work with a 5-minute bike ride and where we’ll have a guest room (for guests, i.e. you).  now that’s worth a big smile.  🙂

lots of love.