Hindsight

March was a crazy busy month, all ending with a trip to Charlotte, North Carolina for the American College of Medical Genetics Annual Conference.  ACMG was a really great experience: I presented a poster, learned about new and interesting things in genetics, and got to catch up with many of the Chicago area GCs that I haven't seen in quite a while.

I also had the most delicious red velvet cake I have ever had in my life.  And lots of southern style mac and cheese.

Anyway, ACMG also gave me a chance to do a bit of reflection on how much my life had changed in a year and how everything thing that has happened has absolutely been for the best.  Even though, if you had asked me a year ago where I would be today, Santa Monica is probably one of the last places I would have guessed.


A year ago, I had just graduated from Northwestern with my Masters in Genetic Counseling and NOTHING was going according to my life plan.  I was supposed to graduate and have an amazing job lined up in Chicago.  Then I was going to start looking for apartments to buy and move into when my lease was up in August.  Biftu, one of my besties and roomates from college, was contemplating moving in with me.  The problem?  There were absolutely no genetic counseling jobs in Chicago.  Out of my 11 classmates, 5 of whom wanted to stay in Chicago, only one is still  there.  Any jobs that did pop up were given to experienced counselors; it felt like we would never catch a break.  I started teaching again to buy some time, hoping for something to open up and I also started applying to jobs out of state.  At the end of July, right before my lease was up, I had two job offers: one for a part-time job in Colorado Springs and the other for my current job.  The week after I accepted my job, I got a call from a hospital I had rotated at in the South suburbs wanting me to interview for a position.  Of course.  Too little, too late.

All throughout my life, my mom would always tell me that "Everything happens for a reason" when things weren't going the way I wanted them to.  While I honestly think that success is a combination of hard work, capitalizing on opportunity, and some luck, my mom's words always made me feel better.  It took the responsibility of things not going my way off of me.  It made me feel like my opportunity was still out there instead of feeling like I was blowing my opportunities.  It promised that what I had ahead of me was better then anything I had planned.

While my move to California was not in my plans, catching up with everyone at ACMG made me realize how happy I am and how fortunate I am to have all the opportunities I'm getting at my job.  Ironically, the jobs in Chicago seem to be plentiful this year.  Call it what you want: fate, destiny, serendipity even; I'm right where I'm supposed to be.  And thinking that it may be time to loose the plans and go with the flow for awhile.  The universe seems to know best...