On the Move!

It feels like we’ve been revving our engines for a while now, and now we’re finally on the move! 

Valentines Day was quite superfluous as usual, and although was spent beside the most gorgeous man whom I have ever met, it just happen to be spent mostly in a doctor’s office as well.  The visit of which was ended with a big ol’ kiss from a needle of cortisone right in the wrist. “De Quervain's Tenosynovitis” the doc called the big painful nodule on my wrist that has been bothering me for months now, and which he hopes to cure with that god-awful stick.

I also learned that my Grandma is recovering quite nicely, and was able to leave the hospital at long last.  Despite the initial scare that her left side would not be able to recover, she is moving around with a cane and is even feeling some achiness in her left arm – a sign we are hoping means that her nerves are trying with all their might to start firing again! Woo-hoo!

Our hearts sank, however, when we learned that my Mum’s new husband had lost his mother. She had been putting up a valiant effort to fight her own health problems for a few weeks and finally found peace at the end of it all. Although Chad and I never had the pleasure of meeting her, it is apparent to us that she was a wonderful woman.

Perhaps the most joyous area picking up speed is school, however, with just two and a half weeks left before dreaded finals!

However, that also means there is just 2 weeks left before the portentous “extern draw”. You have probably heard Chad and I use this term quite often, and it dawned on me that some of you may not fully grasp the gravity of our situation.

So, for those of you who are unfamiliar with OIT’s extern draw process, allow me to paint you a picture:

Students get admitted into the Radiology program and immediately start thinking of their senior year; the senior year that they will spend working at a hospital as if they were a real radiologic technologist.  Where will they go?  They simply don’t know. They spend their entire Sophmore and Junior year wondering, until Winter term their Junior year.

This is when a list is released of all the possible hospitals that they can choose to go work at for this year. These are the hospitals that have contracts with the school to accept one, or sometimes two students per year.

Then comes the ominous “draw day”, usually a week or so before Spring Break. Tension builds and you constantly get asked where you want to go.  Students begin circling each other like sharks and the claws start to peek out.

We are all cattle-driven into a sweaty humid room and locked in so that no one may leave or enter during “the draw”.  You see a bin up front, and a pile of paper slips that are passed around to everyone so that they may write their name on them.  You are hoping to only need one, but you are advised to take a handful of paper slips just in case.

Things commence and you notice that everyone is swallowing hard and perspiring.  They begin to go down the list of hospitals.  They call out the first one:  Grants Pass (for example)

If you are one of the students hoping to spend your year working at the Grants Pass Hospital you instantly break into a sweat and go up to drop your name into the fate-altering vessel.

Five, no six people happen to want to spend their final year in Grants Pass… but the hospital is only accepting 1 student.  You think you might hyperventilate as the bin is swirled, and a hand is reached in.  A single paper slip is taken out, the name read.  There could be crying, profanity, shouts, or cheering.

This process continues until all the hospitals have been called out, and each person has been matched up with a hospital.  The hospital you end up with quite literally depends on the luck of the draw. For all its worth, you could put in for 7 different hospitals and still end up in Susanville.

This year, the event will take place on March 8^th, and Chad and I will be in attendance.  It is a date that has loomed over mine and Chad’s future like the Grimm Reaper – threatening us with the unknown of what will happen if we hadn’t heard back from Oregon’s lagging DOJ in regards to our Australia contract. Without an approved and signed contract between our school and the hospital in Adelaide, Chad and I would not be able to complete our externship there, and would be forced to draw randomly with the rest of our class for a site around Oregon.  We couldn’t help but wonder where we go, and what we would do if we ended up on opposite sides of the state – especially if those places were ones we had zero interest in.

The inquiries have become ever more persistent, as if everyone around can sense the clock ticking down.  “Have you heard back yet?” “Do you know?” “What’s going on with Australia?” “Any update?”

We’ve bit our tongues to keep from snapping back anxiously while pulling out our hair and shouting WE’RE STILL WAITING!!!

But now we no longer have to.

YES!  We have heard back!  We got an email late last night with the news that the State stepped up their game and signed off on our contract.  FINALLY!!

This morning, I can vouch that the contract was sent off to Adelaide for the final – and I mean FINAL – signatures!

So what now? 

Well, we aren’t clicking SUBMIT on those Visa applications just yet.  The contract has been legally approved by the State of Oregon.  Our school has agreed to sign it.  We have sent it to the Head of Radiology at the hospital in Australia. Now, we await their signature.  Once we get a signature back from them, we have the official – yes, OFFICIAL – go ahead to apply for Visas, buy airfare, look for apartments, and perfect that swimsuit body!

It is increasingly hard for Chad and I to repress our excitement and nervousness of the sudden realization that our efforts are paying off, and we could be days away from the news that everything is finalized – that our year abroad will in fact be a year abroad.

You would not believe the relief that we feel with that damn extern draw date looming over our heads like a snow storm on a sunny day.  I think everyone both involved and affected by the outcome was starting to get pretty antsy!!

So please, do a little victory dance in our honor and watch for our next update!

My, How Time Flies!

This past Thursday, Chad and I celebrated 4 whole years of happiness together.  4 whole years!!  I couldn’t help but reflect back on all the time that has passed. It has hardly felt as long as it sounds: FOUR. WHOLE. YEARS.

It is amazing to think that it was 4 years ago that we were wandering out of the Notre Dame dorms, wandering down the cobbled streets, breathing in the ocean air on the way to our first date!  All dolled up in dresses and slacks, we hopped on the train, and admired the beautiful beaches of Cottesloe, Swanbourne, Karrakatta... as we ‘sailed’ into Perth.  We wandered hand-in-hand to dinner at the Brass Monkey – a fancy-smancy restaurant that we couldn’t really afford at the time.

We watched it get dark as we hopped the train again to wander around the streets of Swanky Leederville before catching a movie at the ritzy ‘Luna Palace Cinema’.  We saw ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’.

When we got back to Fremantle late that night, we dropped off our shoes back at the dorm and wandered down to the beach barefoot  - as Chad liked to say, he was “getting Aboriginal feet”. We admired the stars as we mosied slowly down the sand until we reached the McDonald’s, and sat on the rocks watching the moon until we decided to wander back.

Cheesy as it is, it brings a smile to my face to think that was where the “us” began.

I reflect in awe that so much time has passed, and so much has happened. Since that little date in Freo, I have moved to California and then to Oregon; Together we have lived in 3 different houses, gone to 3 different colleges, and are now 3 years into the trek of becoming Rad techs. With the very real possibility of returning to Australia!  Talk about coming full-circle!

My purpose of sharing our story isn’t to incite eye-rolling and nausea, but to share with you how amazing our 4 years have been.  Reflecting back, and then looking ahead to what the future might hold in the next 4 years has brought a much-needed reminder of how exciting things can be.  Try it for yourself!  Are you today where you once thought you would be?  What have you accomplished in the last few years? How have you changed?  Where do you think you will be next year? Three years? Five?

It is far from hard, living in our tiny little truck-stop town, to turn negative and start to loose sight of everything except the ‘finish-line’ – the very day that we can pick up and move on to new and better things (approx. 123 days, but who’s counting?) but taking the time to really reflect on where we stand in our journey together has shone a bright little speck of happiness on things. This little truck-stop may not be ideal, but it has become part of our journey, part of what got us to where we are.  And after all, it is only a truck-stop on the long road that lies waiting!