Living the Dream

Hello again everyone! You know, life is crazy busy, and I've been so busy living that it has been hard to find time to write about it. Luckily I'm entering into a new season of abundant free time, so I thought I'd pick up my virtual pencil and jot down a few life updates. So here goes nothing...

After moving and spending a couple of months as a housewife, I was crazy lucky to find a job as a "medical scribe" at an urgent care here in Charleston. For those of you who don't know, scribes are basically the people who document everything during a medical visit. I followed around the doctors and PAs and wrote down anything important that they or the patient said, with the hopes that anyone reading the "chart" in the future would have a complete picture of that visit. After a few very challenging weeks of training, in which I was literally terrible at my job and cried after work in my car, I started to get the hang of things and eventually fell in love with my job and the people I got to work with. Even with the crazy stressful 13 hour shifts, working weekends, and the occasional unruly patient, I know that job was perfect for me. You see, at the beginning of the year I had the daunting task of figuring out how to get 1,000 clinical hours so that I could apply to PA school. Just when it seemed impossible to find a job in a new city with no connections and no real training, the Lord provided this job that got me the hours AND incredible exposure to all kinds of patients and medical problems. Most importantly I got to work with a bunch of people that inspired me to keep running after my dream of being a PA. While I was working, I was also taking a few classes at the local community college, applying to PA school and doing the whole "adult" thing, so the past 9 months were busy as heck.

Two of my most frequently used work faces: the "I don't know what I'm doing" and the "I wan't to be you"

Just to clarify, a "PA" is a Physician Assistant. Even if you don't know what that means, you've most likely been treated by a PA at some point in your life and didn't even realize it. They can do many of the things that a doctor can do, including diagnosing illnesses, prescribing medications and even specializing in different types of medicine. After some turmoil over the past 2 years, the Lord made it pretty clear that being a PA was the career choice that made the most sense for me. When we decided to plant our roots in Charleston it was with the knowledge that there is a great PA school here that I could set my sights on. So in June when applications opened up, I submitted my one application to the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) and prayed that it would be the last time I'd ever have to apply to a school. 

Fast-forward to one week ago... after about a year of madness, the company that I've been working for had to shut it's doors last week. That means that I lost my job and am an unemployed housewife yet again.  As sad as I am to lose those paychecks and the time spent with my top-notch coworkers, this whole situation has honestly just made all of the blessings in my life even more evident. Guys, if you ever need motivation while budgeting, just remember me saying that saving and budgeting over the past 9 months saved me and Austin from a whole lot of worry and panic. Dave Ramsey would be so proud. Any who, I'm jobless and spent the past week making jokes about unemployment, catching up on lost sleep and watching Jane the Virgin on Netflix. No complaints here.

 Excuse me while I spend my entire day here...

Surprisingly, getting laid off was not the biggest thing that happened to me this week. On Tuesday morning (while I was still asleep at 10:30am), I got a call from an unknown number. After mistaking it for an alarm and answering by accident, I  proceeded to hang up immediately. Luckily for me, the unknown caller was persistent and I got another call a a few minutes later. On the other line was someone from MUSC telling me that I GOT ACCEPTED TO PA SCHOOL. Reminder, I'm literally half asleep and wearing a PJ shirt, so this moment is not as glamorous as I imagined it to be, but it was still one of the best things that has ever happened to me. The nice man on the phone might have been re-thinking my acceptance after I started asking if this was "real life", but I honestly was in awe of the fact that all of the hard work I'd put in had actually been worth it.

My first picture as a future PA, PJ shirt included...

I know it's cheesy, but this week my lifelong dream came true. I've been blessed with an opportunity to go to school (again) and learn about things that I LOVE. Then when I graduate I'll get paid while using that knowledge to help make someone's day better, to save someone's life, to treat someone's beloved child or even just to let someone know that they're going to be ok. I mean how incredibly cool is that? And I'm not calling this a blessing just because that sounds nice, I'm calling it that because I can't think of a better word to communicate how loved I feel to serve a God that knows the desires of my heart and has opened the doors for me to live them out. How honored I feel to be entrusted with the lives of other human beings. How lucky I feel to be given a tangible way to serve people. Obviously I'm still a few years from these things, but even just the thought of them is enough to make my day. 

Living the dream,

Kelly