We're Moving... to Pittsburgh!!

So the waiting is over. And this pretty well sums up how I feel.

After two months of waiting to receive letters from the Phd Programs I applied to, and over $500 spent in application fees and so forth, the results are finally in. And well, God nullified all possibilities for anxiety over making a decision of one school over another as I only got accepted into Duquesne. So, over the course of this summer, we will probably look for a house to purchase that's closer to our church or Duquesne.

I must say that my emotional response has been a bit conflicted over the past week. On the one hand, because of all the intangibles that we have here in Pittsburgh - supportive friends, a great church, Amber's employment contacts, a great assistantship/job that I love, a new addition to the family, and professors that I have gotten to know - which would have been lost had we moved elsewhere, it would have taken a lot for us to move. Thus, Amber and I had already concluded that we would probably wind up staying in Pittsburgh over a number of the other schools to which I had applied. But on the other hand, its just the principle of thing. In other words, to not get accepted anywhere else is a big blow to my ego. I would like to believe that I'm good enough to study at a highly reputable school (not that Duquesne is terrible, it's just not the best). I would like to get some affirmation for all the academic work that I've achieved over the less than two years.

But alas, things never turn out the same way as my visions of grandeur (which is most likely a good thing). What made it even more disappointing, I think, is that all my friends said that they didn't start getting acceptances until the beginning of March. Well, the first week of March came and went and I had only heard from a handful of schools. In fact, I didn't hear back from most of the schools until near the end of the month, which means that I must have been in the final pile of those applications under consideration.

Story of my life. I've always been in that strange, paradoxical place of not bad but not great. When I was a kid, I never made the "A" team in baseball, but then at the end of the year I always made the "B" level all-star team.

But, I guess there's no point in moping around about it either. This is where we've been placed for the next few years, and its not a bad place to be. And again, not having to deal with the anxiety of choosing a school and moving across country, particularly with a newborn in the house, is something I'm definitely thankful for. Now we can look forward to continuing our involvement with the church that we've grown to love, further building relationships, swerving around Pittsburgh potholes, and internalizing the beloved Pittsburgh accent...ok, maybe not the latter. To me, it's forever "Steelers" not "Stillers" and "downtown" not "duntun."