hard work realized

     Normally I do not check my school email often.  It's mostly announcements from the school about various going ons.  But the past two days, I've started checking it more frequently.  The process for applying to residency has started.  It's a centralized process that is nationwide across multiple specialties.  You apply and then sit and wait to hear back from the programs.  Interviewing usually starts in earnest in November.  And I only had one letter of recommendation uploaded out of the three required.  One got lost somehow.  The other is from a busy faculty member so I figured I'd have to wait a bit longer since I was missing those two letters still.  Only I haven't had to wait that long.  I have three interviews offered for October and one more coming.  After all that has happened in my life, it's hard to imagine moving on to the next step.  It is not that I do not wish to move forward.  Far from it.  Still, it is surreal to be honest.  I wasn't sure this day would come despite all reassurances to the contrary.  There have certainly been far too many opportunities for me to collapse or fall apart.  I have walked along that cliff for what seems a lifetime.  Experientially, I have lived several lives in the past several years.  And yet I am still here.  I cannot say how but yet still the next phase of my journey is beginning nonetheless.