WVU and GW

Currently, I am in the Sunshine State. With Christmas now only 3 days (and 45 minutes) away, I made the annual trek to South Florida, where they are experiencing a "cold snap". I can't help but laugh at these people who are complaining that it is cold when it is 68 degrees outside.

My venture to Florida commenced on Sunday afternoon when I left Richmond Virginia at around 2PM as I headed north on 95, north on 495, north on 270, west on 70 and finally west on 68 to Morgantown, WV. 300 miles and around 5 hours later I pulled into the Comfort Inn - Morgantown. I managed to find some time to venture out to Morgantown and finding the Health Sciences Center. I didn't see anyone with a mullet, so that was somewhat comforting. From what I could tell, Morgantown was a pretty cool place.

Lucky for me, the interview day did not start until 10:45. So I woke up around 8-8:30, experienced the complimentary continental breakfast, and was on my way by 9:30. I walked out to my car to find a 1/2 inch of snow on it. Yep, definitely in the mountains. It took like 15 minutes to get to the school the night before, so I thought there might be some traffic. As I was driving in, I realized that this was Morgantown, and that even if everyone that lived in the city was on the highway, there still wouldn't be a lot of traffic. So I hung out at Starbucks for like 30 minutes and made it to the interview room by 10:30. We were given the spiel about the whole process (in a nutshell: every application gets reviewed twice, and as we speak, I have already been reviewed once and the second review won't occur to mid-January). Our tour guide then picked us up (there were only 3 of us) and we made it to the cafeteria and at lunch. After getting a tour of the hospital and the medical school, we were dropped off in the interview room.

So there is a 2 person team that interviews all the applicants that are there in one day; thus they call in the first person to be interviewed and the others have to sit and wait for that one to be done. Then when the first one is done, that person is free to go. And then the second goes. I was really hoping to be first for a couple reasons. One so that I wouldn't have to sit there and think about it. Second because I was driving to DC and didn't want to get there at like 9 o'clock that night. One of the other guys gets called first right at 1 o'clock. He comes back at 1:20. I was thinking sweet, these are gonna be short, and I will be out at 230 at the absolute latest. The next guy gets called in at 1:35 and gets back to the room at like 2:20. While waiting towards the end, I started thinking:

"Crap. The first guy was 20 minutes, and this second guy is taking 30, 35, 40, 45 minutes. So obviously something was different. WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MEAN?!?!?! Ok, I am over analyzing. No, I am not. SOMETHING is different. I can't stop thinking about this. But is it good to be long? Or is it good to be short? Can I make mine go long? Should I make mine go long? The guy who's was short goes to Harvard. That means he's smart. So maybe short is good. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh." You get the idea.

I finally get called in around 2:30, and the conversation was easy. They asked me the typical "Why WVU" as well as "Explain your Calc II grade" "Tell us about that bike trip!" "What do you think is the biggest issue facing healthcare?" etc. After 40 minutes (me thinking again: good or bad????????) the interview is over, and I make my way to my car. I start on my way to DC trying to process how it went, and honestly I have no idea. Yeah, they were friendly, but I am sure they are friendly to everyone. Because of the non-threatening tone, it is hard to tell what they really thought of me. For the biggest issue facing healthcare, I brought up the lack of insurance and thus the affordability of healthcare. One of the interviewers was in total agreement with me, and said that if I could figure something out that I would be something truly special.

I ended up liking WVU a lot. It was cool seeing a comparison between GW and WVU. GW being in the big city and talking about all the opportunities in the political realm to affect healthcare both at home and abroad. WVU being in a small town and taking the approach of being out in the trenches of West Virginia as they really teach to treat rurally. It is amazing the differences between the two, yet the end goal is the same: health. I feel both approaches can work especially considering the work of Dr. Paul Farmer who was able to start small in Haiti and essentially eradicate TB and improve the overall health of those on the central plateau. And on the flip side, through the creation of Partners in Health, he was able allocate millions of dollars from groups like the World Bank to, pardon the expression, trickle down. Essentially I can see both approaches working to improve overall health, and it would be my hope that doctors from all spectrums, whether those trained to be more on the political end, or more in the trenches, can work in concert to improve health. The realm of possibility is seemingly endless and it would be my hope one day to put a small puncture in that realm, making the possible visible.

Coming back to my trip, I made it to DC and had Chipotle with Shina. We went into her lab and I met some of her "friends" (ie: malaria parasites). Those "friends" are dead now because she killed them yesterday morning. I learned more about what exactly she was doing which was also pretty cool. While with Shina I checked my email and I got an email from GW. The email asked me to submit a details of my healthcare experience. And that was all. I have NO idea what that means. I can't even begin to describe what is going through my head as to the reasoning behind this request. I can't determine if it is good or bad. So I am really nervous how to even start to phrase this, knowing full well that it will probably have a very heavy bearing on the decision rendered to me. Scared wouldn't be an effective word to describe how I feel. It is so weird. Hmmmm.

Tomorrow should be my first day on the beach because it is finally supposed to be sunny. I know I have no right to complain since about 99% of you are reading this from a colder place. In case this is the last post before Christmas, I want to wish all you readers a Merry Christmas. Pageantry aside, take a minute to think what the day is all about on Sunday. Even just one minute amidst the hustle and bustle that is food, family, friends, and fun. I can't believe it's Christmas really soon, but that is probably mostly d/t the fact that we put up our christmas tree tonight. Still no lights/decorations, but hey, at least it's up.

still waiting
-wait