Bucket - O - Fate

Today was the draw for externship for Kyle’s senior year. Let me tell you it was a stressful time. It might have been better if I had not have gone to witness it with Kyle. The draw was at ten this morning. Kyle dress in his lucky interview clothes (which is a dress shirt, tie and dress pants), so I decided to dress nicer then my usual tennis shoes and jeans too. There were three other students and spouses that had also dressed up.

We get there and get our seats. All of his advisors are up front, along with one of the nuc med techs from the hospital, Sky Lakes here in Klamath Falls. All 17 hospital names have been written on the board. The advisors crack a couple jokes to lighten the mood- but the mood stay about the same. Each junior was handed a tag with their name written on it. (I should have taken a picture of Kyle’s). Rick, one of the advisors, explains to the group again what is going happen and then we get started…

There are two white buckets. One has written on it “Bucket -O-Fate”, in that bucket is all the names of the 17 hospitals. The other bucket is just plain white, which is the bucket that your name goes into if you want to go that hospital.
Bruce (the tech from the hospital) draws the first hospital, it is not on our top five pick so we don’t put his name in. Two more pass. Finally Salem is called and that is one of ones we wanted so in his name goes in the bucket. The draw is…Jennifer. I am okay with that I didn’t really have my heart set on Salem. Two more pass.

Kaiser is called. My heart jumped and I sit on the edge of my seat. This was the one that we were hoping for. It is back in the Portland area, in Clackamas County and back where family is, I could keep on going why we wanted this one-but I won’t. Kyle had said that no one else had mentioned anything about Kaiser; I thought we had a good chance. As the bucket went around the room, it seemed like everyone was putting their name in but it was probably just four people, but still that is a lot. As the advisor walked back up to the front of room, I held my breath and Rick drew the name…Kelvin. I was crushed; it was like a flood gate had open up, I tried to bite my lip so it wouldn’t seem like I was crushed that we didn’t get it. But I don’t think that worked, cause Kyle and Ryan (is Kyle’s BFF in the program) were telling me it was going to be okay and work out just fine. One of the advisors walked over and handed me the box of tissues. I think a couple more hospital names were called, I couldn’t tell you what they were or who got it. I was trying to “collect” myself.

Finally when I focused back in I realized Kyle was just putting his name into every Portland hospital. Even if he didn’t want to go there; I was grateful. But to no avail… his name was never picked for any Portland ones. I was sick to stomach, why were we not headed back home to Portland?

One of our last top five was called, Corvallis. The bucket went around; six people including Kyle dropped their name into the bucket. The name was called……. KYLE. I was in utter shock; Corvallis of all places. I know we had talked about it, but I didn’t think we would go. I guessed you could see that on my face, because Kyle kept saying don’t worry we can still trade. That put a little hope back for me.

The draw ended. A couple people chatted but others left quickly.

I was in shock that we got Corvallis; Kyle tried to work a deal with a couple of the others students for a trade. But there was one that wouldn’t do it. So I think we are headed to Corvallis but it is not set in stone until Monday at noon.

I am becoming okay with the idea of going to Corvallis. As I was doing the dishes this afternoon, I had an epiphany; Heavenly Father has made it possible for us to go to school. We look back and see his hand all through this time. And he must have a reason that we are going to go to Corvallis. The reason I can say this is because there were four people that got exact spot that they needed; either because they had free housing or it was close as they could get to be with their love ones. I know Heavenly Father has a plan for us and I have Faith that he will make everything work out.

But if you know of any housing in Corvallis, close to the Hospital, that isn’t too expensive, pass it on to us. Thank you for all your prayers and thoughts as we went for the draw. Thanks also for bearing with me on my story of my experience.