Hooray for Good News!

{a sweet surprise on my door Thursday morning at work}

If you follow me on Facebook, you may have already seen my good news, but if not, I'm so excited to be sharing it today.  Wednesday, at 11:22 am, I joyfully accepted a postdoctoral fellowship at a major university in Chicago.  The past few months have been filled with anxiety and stress, completing applications and inteviewing across the Chicagoland area.  Back in December, I made the decision that no matter what, after the completion of my internship in July, I was going to return to Chicago.  Job or not, I was coming back to be with Matt, to be a family, to continue our "normal" life together, living in the same city, and seeing each other every day.  So with my sites set on Chicago, I worked my butt off to get as many interviews as possible, in a market that is pretty saturated with professionals in my field.  Monday I had an all day interview at my top site.  And though I loved the site, I came home fairly certain I hadn't done well in the interview.  I replayed my answers over and over in my head, criticizing each turn and gesture, all the while having Matt and my family tell me, "Allison, I'm sure you were wonderful."  As I waited for Wednesday morning's notification time, I kept praying for God to calm my anxiety, to remind me that He had a plan already in place.  And at 11:22, that plan was revealed.

Getting a Ph.D has been a long and exhausting journey, and in August, I'll officially be Dr. Allison, and the journey will be coming to a close.  A new journey will of course begin, as I start my professional life, and I'm so overjoyed that it will be in Chicago, at an incredible university, working with motivated and determined students.  I feel so blessed to know where I'm going and to know that in four months, I'll be back in Chicago full-time, starting a new part of my professional journey.  I'm so grateful for all the people in my life who have helped me get to this point and who have supported me through this last leg of the process.  It's been a crazy ride, and I'm so thankful I've got such a great support network to ride along with me.  I'm still on cloud nine, so you can be certain that this weekend will be filled with lots of champagne and smiles as I celebrate and give thanks for this exciting next step!