When we enrolled in med school here in Kirksville, we knew that we'd be living here for two years doing our basic sciences class work then we'd most likely move to do my clinical rotations in another town. Our school has contracted with many hospitals in several different states to take a portion of our students on for our clinical trainings. This month our school held its lottery match to determine where each of the students will end up for the next two years of training. The second year students were required to generate a list of their top 6 locations and a computer would "match" each of the students to their highest preferred spot based on the number of available spots and the popularity of the site.

This is a stressful time for the students. Some sites are better than others for various reasons, and everyone has their own particular things they are looking for. Of course, there are a few hospitals which are the most popular because they are the larger teaching hospitals which hold many different residency programs. These places also tend to have a few spots available, but not enough to satisfy their popularity among the students. Also, we knew that they had three sites in UT, one each in Logan, Salt Lake City, and Provo with spots available for roughly 13 students.

During the past month, Britta and I have discussed what we wanted quite a bit, but haven't been able to make a certain conclusion. We did have what we thought was a good list which made the most sense for where I wanted to be career-wise and which would give me the best experience for the next two years. This list included the larger hospitals in Ohio and Michigan (and a smaller one in Illinois) and we were prepared for that possibility mentally. We didn't have any Utah sites on the list.

Then we prayed about it.

I didn't really feel that our list was complete and I just didn't feel comfortable with our choices, although they made the most sense to us academically and for my medical training. For a few reasons, we had excluded Provo from our list entirely, but each time I prayed about it, it would come up. Persistently. In the temple. At home. It didn't make sense to me; I had eliminated it from consideration in favor of what I thought were clearly better choices. I mentioned this to Britta the night before I submitted my final list and she recommended that I place it back on. I think we were going to put it back on, but lower down the list with a lesser chance of matching there.

I still didn't feel peace, though. It was not until I was in the process of submitting my list that I made my final decision on Provo. I knew that if I put it low on my list, I would not be going to Provo. I also knew that if I placed it high on my list I had a good chance of going to Provo. I knew if I placed it first on my list, I had no chance of going to the sites I preferred.

This is the logic which hit me then: if I believed that the impression to include Provo was an answer to our prayers regarding where we should be going, was placing it anywhere on the list good enough of an action on that answer? or would only placing it first be appropriate? I sure didn't feel that way about the other sites, that they were equally an answer to prayer, even though they were my preferred choices. The more I thought about it, the more I became convinced that I needed to place Provo at the top of the list, and I did so, and submitted my list. It wasn't until I submitted the list that I felt at peace and confident that we were going to the right place.

So, there you have it. I hope you're ready for us, Utah, because we're a comin back.

Now, if only we can get season tickets to the BYU football and basketball games next year.