Best laid plans...

Well, for those of you who don't know us that well, or haven't talked to me in the last several months, the biggest news recently is that I did get accepted to Medical School at Case Western Reserve University. They say repetition is the key to learning...I wonder how many times I'll have to learn the lesson about submitting to God's plan before I finally get it.

Prior to actually being accepted, I was starting to feel pretty bitter about the whole process. All along, I'd seen myself as a shoe-in; eventually the confidence went to my head, I guess, and I got pretty arrogant about myself. I felt like all of these schools had made a huge mistake by not accepting me, and I started to search for ways in which the system of application and admissions was unalterably flawed because, hey, this was ME we were talking about. What I failed to remember was that God always has a plan for us, and while things may not happen on the timeline we want them to, we've been promised that they will always happen in the way that's best for us.

About this time that I was stewing in my own bitterness about not getting in, I finally resigned myself to my fate as a victim of a flawed system and was about ready to give up on the whole thing. Then, after I got out of the shower one morning, I had a voicemail from the Director of Admissions at CWRU. I called back and got the good news...I'd been accepted off of the waiting list, and was I interested in taking a spot in their matriculating class. You bet!

Just what the Lord had done for me started then to come into focus, and that focus is still being sharpened even as I begin classes. You see, CWRU had been at the bottom of my list as far as schools I wanted to go to. I was on three waiting lists: Colorado is my home school, Brown is in a gorgeous city, so why would I want to move to Cleveland, OH for some school almost no one has heard of?

Now that I'm here, I realize just what a blessing it was to be accepted here and not at one of the other schools. First of all, despite the fact that not many have heard of it, CWRU is actually a phenomenal medical school: #23 in the country according to U.S. News and World Report, and #12 according to the NIH. Second, the quality of the medical facilities associated with the school means that students here get a first-rate clinical education. Third, the curriculum is the best I've ever heard of and is exactly tailored to my particular learning style. Finally, despite what I thought previously, Cleveland is a phenomenal city and we consider ourselves lucky to be here. We've got some great friends here, and we couldn't be happier.

Hindsight is 20/20. As I come to understand why I'm here and not in Colorado or Rhode Island, it's becoming clear to me why I had to go the round-about way to getting in to medical school. My bitterness at not getting accepted right away led me to arrogance about myself as a candidate. At the point that I was ready to give up on medical school, I was starting to see through my bloated, over-wrought self to recognize my own weaknesses. I'll spare you the boring details, but the Lord needed me to be humble so that I could understand His plan in bringing me to CWRU.

I'm grateful for repetition.