MAKING THE MOST OF MEDICAL RESIDENCY INTERVIEWS

The first leg of the journey would take me to Tucson, AZ. Starting in the morning cold of wintertime Columbus, OH, I’d fly to Phoenix and then hop on a short connecting flight to Tucson. After waiting in line for an hour and a half for a Nissan Versa hatchback, I headed to my friend’s apartment (where I’d stayed on my month-long away rotation at the University of Arizona) and we immediately drove to the top of Mount Lemmon. This mountain stands on the northern side of Tucson and provides a completely different landscape than the desert environment the city is known for. His dog Sugar, a super sweet pitbull, tagged along for the adventure. We spent several hours exploring different viewpoints and short hikes in the fresh 35 degree mountain air. The next day was my interview at the University of Arizona and getting out into the great outdoors certainly helped to clear my head.

My interview at the University of Arizona came and went, and with a feeling that it had gone well, Tyrel and I headed out for a celebratory hike. But unlike the day before, this time we stayed at a lower elevation and hiked a small desert mountain. It’s from this vantage point that I had experienced the most beautiful sunsets imaginable a few months back while on my away-rotation in Tucson. This evening was no different, but the experience was bittersweet. I was happy to experience nature’s profound beauty, but saddened by the thought that I wasn’t sure when I’d be back. At this point I was heavily leaning toward Tucson as my top choice for a residency spot, but you never really know how things might end up. I might end up somewhere else and have to continue visiting the city as a tourist on rare trips rather than as a resident building a life there. Wanting to enjoy the views in front of me, I let those thoughts go for the time being. We stood watching the sun disappear behind the horizon, and then hiked down to my favorite BBQ spot in Tucson. The next morning brought a quick breakfast at my favorite local café and a flight back to Ohio.

Done with my interview in Arizona, I’d spend the next few days completing two interviews in Michigan. One would be in Grand Rapids, where I’d stay with a good friend who was a current part of the residency program there, and the other was in Detroit. If the drive time to a location is less than twelve hours I prefer to travel by car, so I climbed in my trusty steed (a 2012 Chevy Cruze) on a winter afternoon in Columbus and was on the road to Grand Rapids. After a Summer of driving all over the country, this drive was really pretty trivial and soon I was at my friend’s house for the evening. I mentally prepared myself for my interview the next day and went to bed. The interview came and went and my friend and I set out to Founder’s Brewery to catch up over a beer. I went to bed that night dreading waking up before sunrise and driving to Detroit in the cold of Michigan. A few hours later I had to face that dreaded situation, trudging out in the snow, scraping off my car, and driving a couple of hours east. I arrived in Detroit while it was still dark and parked in a less-than-well-kept parking garage to change into my suit. This exercise involved a good bit of physical dexterity in a compact sedan, but soon enough I was ready for my interview. Like the others, this interview went well, and I hopped back in my car to drive back to Columbus.

The last leg of this nine day adventure took me to Salt Lake City, UT. Whereas my trips to Michigan and Arizona over the preceding few days were limited to a maximum of two days per interview, on this trip I had the luxury of an extra day to explore without any interview related time commitments. After waking up at 3am, I boarded a flight to Utah and a few hours later landed safely. An Uber transported me to my AirBnb for my time in Salt Lake City, and not wanting to waste any time, I quickly headed out on a hike in the surrounding mountains. I had driven to my away rotation in Salt Lake a few months prior and thus had an abundance of hiking gear with me. However, this time I had close to nothing. Just some street boots with very little tread left, and some cheap plastic microspikes in case I needed more grip. As such, I decided to embark on a less aggressive hike than those I did the Summer before. Another Uber dropped me off at the Living Room Trail, and off into the Mountains I went. There was snow covering most of the ground, but lucky for me, it wasn’t actually that cold. I opted to walk without the microspikes which meant my progress was slow but deliberate. Eventually I made it to the viewpoint I was after, looking down on the city and the university where I’d have my interview in about 36 hours. After a short while admiring the view I took another Uber to City Creek Center, a shopping mall, so I could grab some dinner at the Red Iguana. Then it was back home for an early bedtime. My brain was still on Ohio time.

After my less aggressive hike the day before, I woke up on my second day in Salt Lake City ready to tackle a slightly harder one. Of course, I was still limited by my lack of proper gear, but I was confident I could struggle my way up a snowy mountain for just a couple of miles. My only time commitment of the day came in the form of a pre-interview dinner scheduled at 6:30pm later that night. This gave me ample time (hopefully) to make it up Jack’s Mountain, hike back down, clean off my boots (which were my only pair of shoes other than leather dress shoes), and freshen up before the dinner. So, that’s what I set off to do. After a 20 minute Uber ride to the base of the trail in a nice residential area, I spent the first 30 minutes of my hike trudging through mud and wet rock behind the backyards of several nearby houses. I kept a close eye on my location on my AllTrails map to make sure I was actually on an established trail and wasn’t trespassing on the residents’ property. Eventually, the trail turned to the right and headed up the mountain. And this is where things started to get interesting. My gear limitations meant that I didn’t have proper rain gear. I just had a down Eddie Bauer jacket which definitely wasn’t waterproof. As I started gaining elevation, a slight mist filled the air and dampened everything I was wearing. I was fine with being wet so long as that didn’t lead to being cold. Luckily, it was about 50 degrees out, and as long as I kept moving and generating body heat, I was fine. My most immediate issue was my complete lack of traction on the wet rocky trail intermittently covered with snow. The soles of my shoes were made out of what reminded me of a pencil eraser, and the tread had been worn down long ago. I had microspikes designed to lend at least some tread, but rather than the heavy-duty kind meant to go over boots for more aggressive hikes, they were instead meant to go over everyday sneakers to provide grip on one’s way into an office from a parking lot. So, hot and damp with perfectly flat shoes covered in ten dollar flexible rubber microspikes, I struggled up the mountain. The mist turned into larger drops of rain, testing the weather sealing on my camera and further saturating the goose down in my jacket. The rocky trail was traded for ever-increasing amounts of snow. Fog obscured the view back down the mountain. But eventually a small collection of rocks with a mailbox embedded in them came into view. I had made it to the top. This mailbox was full of notebooks signed by previous hikers, and on the inside lid of the down-folding mailbox door was the story of why what I had just hiked up was called Jack’s Mountain. Watch the film to see for yourself. After admiring the view of adjacent mountains just past the mailbox, I decided to head down out of the rain to get ready for my dinner. The morning after would be my interview at the University of Utah, and then I’d have a flight home to Ohio. And thus, this series of little journeys was over. The travel had been relentless, but by stringing these trips to Arizona, Michigan, and Utah together, I had made it feel like one grand adventure and proved to myself that even when things get hectic there’s always room for new experiences. I had truly made the most of it.