I survived!!

Well I am back and recovered from my two week interview trail, just in time to leave again tomorrow! I have been all over and I learned a lot of things along the way. To be honest the hardest things were not the interviews, those were actually fun. It was not really the transportation either which i kinda expected to be tough. I never got lost cruising around New England or had a taxi come late. What was hard you ask? Carrying my luggage!! Yes, hauling around 103.1 (i weighed all my bags at the airport just to see) was terrible, and no i did not over pack! I wore everything i brought, sometimes two or three times! When I finally got to Phoenix, my last place to carry everything at once, they gave me the car the farthest away in the lot and I almost cried.

I did learn some things along the way that I might never have had the opportunity to learn or do again. I learned to eat alone in a restaurant without feeling uncomfortable. I learned how to enjoy art, scenery, and discovery by myself. I have mastered how to pack a suitcase that weighs exactly 49.8lbs (no charge under 50lbs!). I have become quite confident navigating my way around completely unfamiliar places, i might even venture to say i have developed a sense of direction. I have changed planes in airports across the US which is not really a big deal until you get to Detroit where it is necessary to go outside, take a shuttle to another terminal, go through security again, then take an escalator to a tram to go to another part of the terminal, then up an escalator... you get the picture. Anyway, I think that i have returned from this trip a more world smart and confident person.

The most important thing that happened during this trip is that after answering the question "why surgery"? about a dozen times, I am absolutely sure that surgery is what i want to do. Most people close to me know that it was a rough decision for me to make but I answered this question over and over with conviction and honestly for why I think surgery is the best career for me. Just a warning though, if anyone outside of an interviewer asks me though they are likely to get hit :)

Chris and I went over the program i have been to so far and made a rough ranking list which we will fit the remaining programs into as i finish the process. Please wish us luck in making wise decisions.