new here...

For the new year, I hope to reach out to other people more to avoid feeling isolated (as most of you, we moved to a new city for residency). So I found this board last night as my husband was on call! He is an intern in OB/GYN and I teach part-time for a small college in New England. This first year is going quite well, but at the moment my husband is having one of those ever-recurring moments of doubt: why am I doing this? why didn't I go into radiology?



I look forward to visiting the board when I can. Happy New Year to all!



Julia

[Meenah]

Welcome Julia,

This is a great place for support. The stresses of the medical life can be overwhelming. This is a safe place to vent!!! We are all in different stages of "growth & development". My husband has been out of training for over 15years, he is a Pulmonologist and I am a nurse.

Luanne

Julia,



Welcome to the group....the people here are really wonderful and supportive...they've seen me through some lonely times and have celebrated lifes happier times with me....



What do you teach? What is your degree in? I just got my MS and am looking for a part-time teaching position as well.



My husband just finished residency and fellowship...we moved on into "real life" about 6 months ago and are finally settling into our first house. We have three children...and an Australian Shephard



Welcome!



Kris

Welcome Julia!



We're glad to have you! My husband is Dave- a 3rd year med student & we're in Michigan. This is a great group- everyone is really supportive!



We look forward to getting to know you!



Wendy

[Phoebe]

Hi Julia- Welcome and Happy New Year! I share your goal of branching out this year. A resolution of mine is to become more involved in my community and strengthen my social network. We are fairly new to our town in Ohio and I would like to make some more connections while I am here. I am in transition from leaving full-time job to a part-time research job with families with pre-K kids. In between jobs I was on maternity leave and now have a 3 month old baby girl named Avery.



Oh yeah, my husband is half-way through a neonatology fellowship. This site has helped me dealing with medical training by having supportive listeners, a place to vent and find other people going through similar experiences.



Hope to see you around.



Jennifer

[Amiens]

Welcome Julia!



This is a great site. My hubby, Matt, is an intern as well doing Anesthesia (doing his intern year in Internal Medicine right now). Everyone here is really friendly and helpful!



Crystal

(Yes, everyone I am still preggers, waiting patiently for the baby to come!)

Thank you all for the warm welcome. To answer your questions, we live in Maine and I teach Italian. We lived in Wisconsin for 7 years though, so we are quite familiar with the midwest.



It's encouraging to hear that so many of you work, raise children, and survive residency! We are planning to start a family very soon and I am nervous about balancing everything. I am really looking forward to beginning this new phase in our lives, although I know it will be a big change.



Take care and thanks again for introducing yourselves to me.



Julia

[DCJenn]

Hi There-



I'm Jenn, spouse to a 2nd year peds intern. We're here in South Texas but I'm originally from the DC area and my husband is originally from LA.



This is a good group of people- you will find someone who is going through or has experieinced mostly anything you can throw at them!



Where are you in Maine? I have family in Maine- my cousin goes to the Univeristy of Maine.



Welcome-



Jenn

Hi Julia! Welcome to the board. This is a great site to find people going through similar struggles and successes.



I am Robin and my husband is a 4th year med student. He is just finishing up the interviewing process and awaiting the dreaded match! He decided to go into anesthesiology and we are anxious to know where we will be going.



I stay at home working as a medical transcriptionist in my "spare time" while the majority of my time is spent caring for my 4 boys ranging from 10 years of age to 2.



We are living in Arizona and enjoying the great temperatures. What part of New England are you in?



Again, welcome!

Robin

Julia,



We had three children during residency, and there were many challenges...you can be sure of that! But if I had it to do over, I think I would...we're still recovering from the whole experience and I think we'll need several years to recover financially and...even emotionally....



I have wanted to learn Italian since I was in a community theatre production of Amadeus........it is a beautiful language...I do speak fluent german after living abroad for years.....but have always wanted to go to Italy and learn the language........I'm envious!!



How did you get the teaching position? Did you have a lot of teaching experience? With my MS I'm trying to get something, but it seems quite difficult.....if you have any tips, I'd love to hear them!



Kris

Dear Kris,



I did have teaching experience before getting this job, having taught at the university level for 7 years during graduate school. If you don't have prior teaching experience, I am not sure what the best route is. I have some friends and have heard about many people with master's degrees who started by getting teaching certification in their state to teach at the high school level. I understand that some private schools do not require certification, but I think they often seek PhDs. You might want to look into that though. With a master's you could teach at the university level as a graduate teaching assistant (if you want to go after another degree) or sometimes as an adjunct lecturer (depends on policies and needs of each institution). I think you could teach at community colleges as a lecturer or assistant of some sort. Good luck with your search!



Best,

Julia

[houseelf]

Julia,



A hail and hearty welcome from a place close to Wisconsin with weather similar to Maine (Minnesota!). What a dream job--teaching! Do you specialize in linguistics, literature, or a certain time period? I'm envious as I certainly miss academia. It is the reality of those darn student loans that get in the way of becoming the eternal student. <sigh>



Seriously, I'm glad that you found us. This board has been the single resource that has helped me get through the rough times. My hubby is a PGY2 in General Surgery at the University of Minnesota and we have a toddler son. I work outside the home with hours that fall somewhere between part-time and full-time, so I can definitely empathize with your concerns about trying to balance a life while have a spouse MIA. Perhaps we can chat about these things below sometime?



Welcome aboard and just dive right in!



Kelly

Hi!



I'm Sally and my husband finished an OB/GYN residency last summer. Life on "the other side" is so much nicer.....something for you to hold on to when things get tough. I am glad that they are okay now, though. We live in Wichita Falls, TX and my husband works at Sheppard Air Force Base. He did his residency in San Antonio at the military hospitals there. We are originally from Indiana and hope to head back in that direction when his payback to the Air Force is over (3 1/2 years). We have three boys, Luke (6), Joel (3), and Nathan (4 months). It's nice to have you on the board!

Lack of teaching experience is a big problem for me, I think. The program that I was in was very bench/research oriented. I applied for a teaching assistantship but had to apply outside of my dept...long story short...nothing was available....The idea of teaching high school right now doesn't appeal to me really, and certification here in MN would take 18 months Our state U is now initiating a program for people with their masters to become certified....I guess this just gives me more time to contemplate my career goals....though I really worry about losing my skills. It can be hard to force yourself to read and keep up with the literature when you aren't in the thick of things...



I am planning on going back to school in a year or two when my youngest is in school.......but I had really, really, really hoped to be able to teach for awhile at one of our local 4 year colleges. I applied to one but they are only interviewing the PhD applicants .....



Thanks for your thoughts,



Kris