The day could not have started out any better. In short, the last two years of medical school had been extremely rough due to some circumstances beyond my control, and I had been anxiously awaiting results that would serve as the official ending to that chapter of my life. When I received the e-mail that would either inform me that I was qualified to be a resident or tell me that I probably was in the wrong career path, I clicked on the link, entered my information and slowly scrolled up the page to see the tops of the letters PASS. Needless to say, I was overjoyed. My closest friends know exactly what I have been through over the last two years, obstacles that would take pages of my blog to describe. I had been hoping that this would have happened before graduation, so that I could truly enjoy it, but this moment was definitely redemption. Things were finally almost back on track. All that was left now was to sign the lease I had been waiting to sign.
As great as that news had made the day, however, my luck was not meant to stay. A few days ago, I had finally found it, the apartment that I would occupy (or probably more accurately, my things would occupy more than I would) for the next three years. A large 2 BR, 2 bath apartment above the storefronts of the bustling village of Great Neck, NY, plus indoor parking for a steal (comparatively to area prices, that is. When compared to Cleveland prices, I would have been paying twice as much as I did for my beautiful 1 BR apt). Today, I had gone in to seal the deal and sign the lease since I finally had some free time before orientation, and the very patient and kind realtor that I had been working with who had found me the place, showed it to me one last time before we went back to her office to call the owner and take care of the deposits and paperwork. Then came the moment of heartbreak. Just before I left the office, a colleague of my realtor overheard us talking and quickly interjected "Wait, are you talking about the apartment at xxx on xxx Road?" My realtor replied, "Yes," to which her colleague replied that she had just gotten checks for the security, first month's rent, and commission, just a couple of HOURS prior, if that. My heart sank, and I drove home (my temporary one at my parents' friends place) and restarted my housing search, only able to find one other apartment in the area that I wanted to be in, but it was a 1 BR/1 BA/no parking, at the same price, which I found out I wouldn't be able to see until Sunday because of our orientation schedule, assuming it too doesn't disappear from the market by then. I ended up playing the "If only" game for the rest of the day.
Today, the third day of orientation, was the shortest, at 5 1/2 hours. We would finish our PALS course today. For those of you non-medical folk, PALS is short for Pediatric Advanced Life Support, which is basically the advanced course which comes after a basic CPR class, but for children. However, because I had spent the majority of the day working on my housing situation, I had not been able to review anything that I would have reviewed otherwise. Luckily this was one of those courses where the instructors would do everything possible to make sure you passed the evaluation stations, saying things like "This big monitor is in my way - I can't see, " so that we didn't forget parts of what needed to be done. Our group had fun with the scenarios, acting out as much as we possibly could, and imitating the lifelike situations shown on the video, which were anything but, when it comes to what actually happens during a code.
Overall, a good, but very unsettling day, with just one big obstacle left in trying to get myself back on track.
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