Moving on

Last month has been all about moving. Going to the other side of the city is one thing... Packing boxes, cleaning, changing addresses... Moving 5 hours drive from where you live is a completely different story. Once you are gone, you won't come back just to check your mail. You try to do everything from distance one way or the other, it complicates any processes ("you just have to come and sign this form... Yeah sure, I'll be there in 5 hours!") Even though I am excited about my new challenge and starting a new life, this part is not exciting...

My philosophy is to try to find something positive in any situation. So, the good part about moving is giving you the "opportunity" of cleaning - and did we ever!  We recycled at least 20 boxes of school notes... good thing, because the new house is much smaller, less place for useless things.

Princess, my daughter, is less than excited about this move. When we first start talking about it, she was happy to be closer to her cousins. But that excitement was short-lived, once she realized she would be leaving her friends here. For a 6 years old, moving can be very abstract. We tried to have her involved as much as possible. She came visiting houses with us, she boxed her stuff with her auntie... It has been a process to help her move on. She still doesn't want to move, she wants to stay with her friends here. The plans are to keep contact with them by writing them letter (which kid doesn't want to get letter in the mail? You are excited about mail, until you start getting bills...). My hope is as soon as she starts school, a week after the move, she'll have new friends and feel better about this new town.

The friend thing has also been difficult for us adults. We are part of a well-established social network here... It is hard to say goodbye to everyone. For sure, we'll stay in touch. For some relationship, it will be enough. For other, we might loose contact. I suppose this is what we call life...

If we told you to come visit, we meant it...

The start of this story

The first day of my our new life

My life completely changed on May 29th, 2013…

Or, should I say, our life... because I am not alone in this, as I have brought my husband and daughter into this craziness.

Well, actually, it changed the day I decided to apply to med school. I’ve read some of other non-trad premed blogs, and my experience is very different. You see, I didn’t have to go through the process of the MCAT, ECs and all that stuff. Where I am from, universities judge the candidates based mostly on their academic results, and the Multiple Mini-Interview. There is no long process of studying for the MCAT, or having to volunteer for years at nearby hospital.

As long as I can remember, I always felt I would be a doctor one day. But, one day does not necessarily mean one-size-fits-all path. Not for me. I studied, worked, and enjoyed life... I bring different life experiences with me in this new challenge. I hope these experiences will help me in the next few years, but even if they don't, I don't mind; I enjoyed life, and that's the most important thing to me.

I have always loved to learn... Even whilst working full time (and traveling for work all over this big country of ours), I studied part-time and did an MBA. I had fun learning new stuff with people from very different backgrounds. My classes were full of engineers, but also people from community services, and even a priest. This all resulted in amazing discussions in classes like ethics of management or social responsibility of business.

In the next few years, part of my challenge will be to find where I fit in a group of people with very different backgrounds than mine. There is a generation between us, our cultural references are different, but we also have a lot in common. Trying to connect on our similarities and learn from our differences. It is not going to be easy every day, but I am sure it will be worth it!