This week I have been in Nashville with my older girls.  My oldest had some oral surgery and I wanted to be there for her to fetch ice, make soup, get milkshakes and basically be at her service in any way she might need.  It turns out she really didn’t NEED me, she just wanted me “in case she needed me” and I am happy to oblige.  I told her there were easier and more fun ways to get me down to visit.  For example, “hey mom, want to come visit?”

My oldest is preparing for PA school which begins next month and she can’t wait.  She is beyond excited and she can’t believe this goal that she has been working toward for so long has finally arrived.  Alex has been singularly focused on PA school for so long that even through undergrad she had a hard time letting go of her vision even for a short amount of time.  When she wasn’t in school she was working to accumulate her clinical hours, doing volunteer service or taking a mission trip to Haiti.  As her parents, we found ourselves in the unusual position of trying to encourage some down time.  This is not something we do with our other children.  Typically, as parents, we have to encourage focus, direction and more study time.  Alex has always been the exception to this rule.

Alex had many offers for physician assistant school.  She could have lived anywhere from big cities to rural communities to complete her education, but she chose Nashville.  The school was everything she wanted in a program and she knew it from the moment she began the interview.  It was different, it was personal and she knew in her gut that this was the school.  Fortunately, they felt the same way about her and offered her a position back in November.  She continued with other interviews and finally made the decision in December to move to Nashville.  She also decided that she was ready for some downtime.  In January, months before she was to begin, she moved.  She lives with her sister and 1-year-old, Ella (the cocker spaniel/poodle mix).  School hasn’t even begun, but she is in love with Nashville. She loves her new city, her new home, having a built-in village of friends whom she has met many times over the last few years and her sister.

Sometimes, in life, we come across opportunities for big life changes and we have to decide what to do.  Alex had planned to stay in Colorado and go to CU Denver for PA school.  She made it pretty far in the interview process.  Out of two thousand applicants, she was 1 of 140 who received an interview.  In the end, she wasn’t offered a position.  It broke her heart in more ways than one. Not only did she not get the school she thought she wanted, but she had to decide to move or apply again.  She chose to move.

As Mick Jagger so wisely said:

“No, you can’t always get what you want
You can’t always get what you want
You can’t always get what you want
But if you try sometime you find

Alex is happy and content in a way I haven’t seen her in a long time.  She needed a change, she just didn’t know it until she was forced to make it.

The next time you don’t get what you want, pay attention.  Maybe you are getting exactly what you need instead.

Sunshine & Sarcasm,

Lowi & G