Next stop: Go Badgers!

Well, we started in Provo for undergrad.  Georgia for medical school. Virginia for intern year, and now Florida for residency.  We finally have the last piece of the puzzle in place.  We are heading to the University of Wisconsin for Garrett's 1-year fellowship!  We move to Madison in June 2015.

It all started back in May, when Garrett and I started to make a list of places we would want to go for his fellowship year.  It's hard to really know much about what programs are "strong", unless you know people at those programs, so for the most part we went by geography and distance to family.  We were fortunate that one of our good friends is currently doing a fellowship at another program across the country, and he gave us a lot of great advice and words of encouragement.  He's doing the same sub-specialty (musculoskeletal, or "msk"), so he had gone through this whole process a few years earlier.

All radiology sub-specialties have their own way of doing the fellowship application process. Some do a "match" like we did for Garrett's residency spot.  Others, like MSK, do rolling admissions.

Applying was very stressful because each program had their own application process, so that took a LOT of time to put together (the written application, a picture, Dean's letter from med school, letters of recs, transcripts, board scores, personal statement, resume, etc.). We decided on 5 programs to apply to, and got the applications out.

A few weeks later, our good friend (the msk fellow) called me to say that even though he had originally recommended that we only apply to a handful of programs, we should probably apply to more.  His program had received over 200 applications -- for their 2 spots!  Garrett and I quickly threw together 5 more applications and sent them off.

The waiting game is the worst.  Weeks went by, and we never heard from any programs.  Finally, Garrett started calling some programs to see what the deal was, and it turned out that his applications weren't complete.  They were missing a very important piece - one that had to be sent by someone else, not us.  Some programs even told him that they had already extended all their interview invitations.  We also heard of many people who already had offers.

We were devastated.  It was already a rough time because Garrett was working the night shift for 6 weeks straight (6 nights a week) and not sleeping well during the day, so he was running on hardly any sleep.  We wondered what we were going to do.  I was so depressed thinking about all the hard work that Garrett has done for the last 10 years, for it all to end up like this.  Probably a bit dramatic, but fellowship is important because it will have a great impact on where he gets a job.

After a lot of praying, stress, and some fasting, emails started to come.  Garrett ended up getting 2 interviews later that week.

His first interview was a "Skype" one with a program out west, which went well.  I took the kids to Chicfila for a few hours to get us all out of the house.  The next day, Garrett drove to North Carolina for another interview there.  I personally was really pushing for this one because I love North Carolina.

Then, one night around 10pm, Garrett got an email from Wisconsin, asking if he could come interview "within the next few days".  We were shocked, because Wisconsin was just a program he had applied to because our friend told us it was one of the best.  When we were sending out applications, we thought, "What the heck? Why not?" and just sent one for the fun of it.  We never dreamed he would get an interview - especially not after all that had happened with his applications.  We hadn't even been thinking about it.... plus, it's so cold there that, to be honest, we really weren't very interested when we sent it (we've gotten pretty wimpy about cold weather).

The next morning I booked his flight, rental car, and hotel.  He flew into Milwaukee which was fun because he lived there for 8 years growing up. He was able to drive around the city and he took a bunch of pictures of all the places he lived (including the first house his parents ever bought), and his old elementary school. It was a fun trip down memory lane for him.

On the day of his interview, I watched the clock all day, waiting for him to call me and let me know how it went.  Finally, he called around 4pm.  I asked how he liked the program and he told me some glowing reviews.  He was really impressed with it.  I asked him if he thought they liked him back, and he said, "Enough to offer me the spot!"

Of course, we were thrilled.  To be honest, I think most of the excitement at first was just that this whole, terrible, frustrating process was OVER!  He had gotten a spot... and a great one, at that.  But, I also knew immediately that this was where we were supposed to go.

That night he was able to stay with one of this best friends from BYU (he lives between Madison and Milwaukee), then he flew home the next day.  A great trip.

We are really excited to move to Madison.  We know a lot of people who have lived in Madison, including my best friend here in Florida (her husband did medical school there and they moved here for residency the same summer we did).  My mom grew up in Wisconsin too, and I have a lot of extended family who still live there, so I'm excited about that.  And, a good fishing buddy of Garrett's (and fellow radiology resident here) is also moving to Madison for his fellowship, so that will be fun.  The kids are excited about the snow, and they are already talking about going apple picking.

All in all, a huge success.  I'm so proud of Garrett and all the hard work he has put in nonstop for the last 10+ years.  We are really excited to move to Wisconsin!