Pre-Dental School

This journey has been a long one so far, but it's only just begun. Flash back to Spring 2010. J was taking the MCAT, and getting ready to apply to Medical School once he got his test results. The results came in, and were not to J's liking. J had always thought he wanted to be a doctor, possibly a surgeon. His dad is an internal medicine doctor, and his uncle is a general surgeon, so he had always grown up seeing what the medical field was like. 

During the summer between J's Junior and Senior year of college, a few things changed in his mind. First of all, he was dating a girl named Abby, and he was thinking she was the one. How would all this work once (if) they got married? Did he want to be a surgeon and not be able to spend a lot of time with his family? How would juggling work and time at home look? Second, J had taken a number of short term mission trips to Peru throughout high school and college, which had given him a longing to go back and help these people once he received professional training. Was medicine the right thing for something like that? How easy was it to tend for peoples' medical needs in third world countries? 

Enter dentistry. More time with family (at least after school was over) and tools that were easy to carry out of the country. It seemed like the solution and passion J was looking for. Now to take the DAT and get in! 

Fall 2010 was busy with taking the DAT and applying to UAB Dental School. J received an interview, but was rejected. He also proposed to the girl of his dreams (ME!), but was not happy about being rejected. In April 2011, the tornado hit Tuscaloosa. J and A were overtaken, as were most of the students at UA, classes were cancelled, and exams were left optional. You can probably see why J was not focused on school. That summer, J and A got married, and J started to apply for dental school again....whew. 

This time he applied to many different schools, both public and private, including UAB again. He interviewed at Nova Southeastern University (Ft Lauderdale, FL), but yet again was rejected. Everyone around J was astonished that such an awesome and smart guy did not get into dental school. 

Not sure what to do, J and A prayed. Hard. J considered applying to PA school and other professional schools, but did not end up doing so. Spring of 2012, J studied HARD for the DAT, re-took it, and gained 2 points on his previous score (which was above average to begin with)! Summer of 2012 began with anatomy class and applying to schools again. This time J received 6 interviews, including UAB and Nova Southeastern. Fall consisted of interviews and taking more post-baccalaureate classes. On the dreaded day of December 3rd, J got on his laptop, only to find that he hadn't for sure gotten in anywhere. 

The doomsday happened. J got a letter from Nova that he was on the "high hold" waiting list, which meant he was up next for acceptance! On the first Monday in January, 2013, J received a call from Nova saying that he got into dental school, and will start as a D1 student on August 5, 2013.

It has definitely not been an easy road so far, but we both see that God has perfect timing. If Joseph had gotten in to school that first time, we would not have had much time to spend with each other as newlyweds. If he had gotten in the second time, he never would have applied for the Army scholarship and we may not have made it to all of our sisters' weddings this year. I am so glad for those precious 2 years we got to spend in Birmingham near our families and friends, and I feel like God allowed us to have that time to prepare us for this BIG change. Now ONWARD...