Loose Ends

So I have sucked at this whole blog thing. But I got the day off today thanks to all of those who served our country. That has given me the opportunity to write something and watch the Men's D-I Lax championships. UMass has had a cinderella run and as of right now (6:54 left in the 3rd quarter) has been holding strong, though they have given up a couple unanswered goals -- it's 9-6 UVa. As I go to finish this entry... there is 2:00 left and it is 15-7 UVa. I was really hoping that UMass could pull it off.

It's been a couple weeks since I have heard about school, and I guess I can confidentely say that the honeymoon phase of the whole thing is over. I am now working on how I am going to pay for this, where I am going to live, and all the other loose ends that I need to do before I actually get there. I have been in a bit of a quandary as to where I should live - part of me wants to live in Northern Virginia, but then part of me also wants to live right next to school. The former is good because it is generally a little bit cheaper, and the latter because I wouldn't have to commute (which might end up balancing out the whole Northern Virginia being cheaper).

I also started to clean my room up some yesterday, and it hit me that because I am finally in school, I can probably throw out all the stuff on all of the other schools. I have had this black filing thing (plastic, easy to carry) that has followed me for the past 3 years as I have moved from Richmond to Baltimore to DC to Baltimore and back to Richmond. I think I have a bit of separation anxiety as I was actually unable to throw away anything. I did, however, move the GW file from the med school application box to the box where I keep the important things. So maybe thats a good thing.

Also in cleaning my room yesterday, I looked up to my wall of post-its and decided it was time. I took a picture of the final status of my applications, and then I took them all down off of the wall. No longer do I need to keep track of where I am standing with a particular school, whether or not I have mailed them an update letter, or if I have received any word from the school. The picture is on the left, and I think you can click on it if you want to make it bigger.

Here are some loose ends from the last couple weeks. In my going to Florida, I was also able to pick up me mail from down there (the mail is forwarded from Baltimore - my permanent address) and in that I found a rejection letter from Maryland and NYMC. I came back from Florida and I finally received my decision from Penn State, who offered me a spot on the "Hold list." Had this come before I heard from GW, I am not sure how I would have felt, but really, it really doesn't matter. After recieving the contract from GW, I was then able to withdraw from both of the waitlists that I was on. That felt pretty cool.

In my withdrawing from WVU, I was emailed back and the person who emailed me said "Good luck in your medical career". For some reason, this is one of the times when it actually hit me. I know deep down inside I am actually going to school. I also know I have wanted this for so long. But then to hear that made it so real. I just thought that was really awesome. It's been a pretty amazing few weeks and I think it is setting in that I am going to be going.

I guess here's a mushy note. I know I've been through a lot over the past few years, and there have been people that have supported me throughout these times, whether it was a simple email saying good luck, or long conversations, or other times when some of you recognized I just needed to be with someone. For all of these things, I really just want to say thanks. Sometimes it was really hard for me to be appreciative because I was only seeing one side of the issue, but there were always people out there who supported me and I am not sure I could ever return the favor. So thanks.

still waiting (but now for something completely different),
-wait