I would like to start this blogging adventure off with a welcome to our friends and family who will hopefully be checking in periodically to see what’s new in the happenings of Gina and Derek. My hope for this project is to maintain a rate of one new post per week. It is very likely that I will fall short of that goal, but please check in anyway.
As many of you already know, I will be starting chiropractic school this coming May. Gina will have one year of dental school remaining, and so we will both be attending school at the same time. Gina will be commuting to Milwaukee, and I will be commuting to Lombard, IL a western suburb of Chicago (the Bears still suck). During that year, our breaks from school have minimal overlap, and so taking time off to visit friends and family will be very difficult. Therefore, I thought this blog would be a great way to keep in touch, and keep everyone up to date as to what sorts of new adventures we are encountering as we begin another chapter in our lives.
For any readers who did not know about me starting chiropractic school, allow me to give you a little background on how I arrived at that decision. I have been working in the Platelet & Neutrophil Immunology Laboratory, part of the Diagnostic Laboratories at the BloodCenter of Wisconsin in Milwaukee for just over 2.5 years. We offer testing and clinical consultation to physicians treating patients with drug-induced, autoimmune, and alloimmune conditions associated with thrombocytopenia or neutropenia. My lab is one of only a few laboratories of its kind providing these unique and specialized assays. I know most of you are not biologists, and I apologize if you have absolutely no idea what I am talking about. It would require a lot of writing to explain these ailments, but I highly recommend looking them up if you have time. If you have no interest in blood disorders, that’s ok because it is not pertinent to my story. Well, as awesome (or lame) as my job may sound to you, the reality is that every day I sit at a lab bench and perform 1 or 2 of the 8 possible tests I have to choose from. There is very little social interaction and I feel very disconnected from the patients I am trying to help. As you all know, an anti-social job is NOT for me.
A little over a year ago, I began to realize that my current area of employment was not going to keep me satisfied for much longer. I began my search for a new career path that truly fit my interests and skills. I took a couple classes along the way, and even attended open houses for programs, but did not find anything that struck me as the correct career path. I was starting to get pretty discouraged, and I was beginning to feel stuck. Finally, Gina asked me one day if I had ever thought about Chiropractic Medicine. The truth is that it had never come across my radar even once. Growing up, I never had to see a chiropractor, so I really had no idea what a day in the life was like. I started looking into programs and what I found is that entering a Doctor of Chiropractic Medicine program is the perfect fit for me. What a relief, to finally feel like I have found my true calling. I am so thankful that Gina brought that idea before me. I will begin classes in the D.C. program at National University of Health Sciences this May and will be on pace to graduate August 14, 2014 (the day before our 5 year wedding anniversary – Can you say VACATION). Due to the big changes taking place right now, Gina and I have signed a lease for an apartment in Kenosha, and we are planning to move in March. We will keep you posted with events surrounding the move and school.
Now, I would like to move on to a much more important topic. The Green Bay Packers are officially NFC Champions and are going to the SUPER BOWL!!! First the Badgers make the Rose Bowl, and for dessert we get a Super Bowl. We could not be more exited for the big game, especially after beating the Bears to get there. This season has been such a rollercoaster. I feel like the Packers were the NFL version of Fleetwood Mac. No matter how many key players fell, the team was able to regroup, overcome the odds and keep on rolling. And although not everybody likes the Packers or Fleetwood Mac, I know when everybody stops to think about it, they are happy to see the Packers in the Super Bowl, and hear there is a Fleetwood Mac reunion tour in casinos all around the U.S.
I suppose I have written enough for now. There is still plenty to talk about, but I will leave it as incentive to write again sooner. I hope you enjoyed what I had to say, and feel free to ask questions and give suggestions. We have to get going…we are on our way to the Marquette vs. UConn basketball game.
Potential upcoming topic: The Marquette Dental School Winter Ball (Friday, January 28th)
Derek’s Current Favorite Beer: Night Train Porter by O’So Brewery (Plover, WI)
Current Favorite Song: Marry You by Bruno Mars
Cheers,
Derek
