Classes start in a couple of months!

OK. So, a little about myself. I am married and father of a two year old. I live in the four corners part of the country and will be attending PA school in a few months. I am leaving the dark side (working in health insurance) to become a physician assistant. More on this later....

I've volunteered in one health care setting or another for most of the last 15 years. I've always enjoyed the interactions with patients as well the various challenges medicine provides. Now I have the opportunity to become a PA - something I've wanted to do for many years now. However, I am excited and frightened. Quitting a very well paying job to experience the mental beat-down that awaits me is tough spot to be in. But, I can do anything for two years, especially if at the end a massive reward awaits.

So now I've got what has turned into a temporary job, now that I have been accepted to PA school. I got the job after a year off of work, staying home with my kid being Mr. Mom and before I was accepted to school. This was my first year applying to school so I didn't even think I stood a chance of getting in given the competitive nature of the application process. I applied to 10 schools and got interviews at five. Of the five I was waitlisted at two, declined at one, accepted to one and I declined the last interview. While that school was an Ivy League school, the cost associated with attending and the fact that I had been accepted to a much closer and cheaper school lead me to not attend the interview. Uprooting my family, selling our home (in this crappy market) and drastically changing our lifestyle were just too big of factors to take lightly. I now have my books and diagnostic equipment for the first semester and am brushing up on biochem and physiology.

Unlike most people who go into medicine- MD, DO, PA- I am not particularly driven or intense. I am a type B personality who thinks getting 89% on a test is just great and wants to have as much of a life as possible during my education. I hate (as much as I can hate people I don't know) gunners and students who whine about getting a B in organic chemistry. I am in for a world of hurt if school turns out to be anything like my pre-med days.