One day, 6 or so years ago, Brad came home from his "great" job to our newly purchased home in SLC and mentioned that he was toying with the idea of going back to school. To get a PhD. As in a 5-year-long PhD. Given the said great job, the newly purchased home (2 miles from my parents), and our very new baby boy in the next room, I was quick to nix the idea. And for the next 8 months we fought. But when Brad started leaving for work before Nick got up in the morning and coming home after he was in bed (and with his bosses working more hours than this) and with Brad alluring me with the lifestyle of a finance professor, I gave in. Okay, there might have been A LOT of prayer and fasting going on as well. Needless to say, we applied to a dozen Financial Economic PhD programs, picked one, sold our house at just the right time, and when I was 16 weeks pregnant with Chase, we moved ourselves across the country. That was the beginning.
And today we came to an end, of sorts.
For those of you who might be wondering how a PhD program works (as I had no idea when we began), let me break it down for you:
Years 1 and 2: Brad took classes and worked on research in financial economics. He took and passed a candidacy exam and comps.
Years 3 and 4: Classes were over with and Brad worked on several different research projects, including his dissertation, which I don't completely understand but I know if has something to do with hedge funds.
Year 5 (which we're in right now): Brad has done nothing but apply and interview for jobs, perfecting his dissertation and a different paper in his "spare time."
So....
After applying to 60 schools (Brad is going to be a finance professor):
Having 30 first interviews:
10 second interviews
3 heart breaks (Brad came in second place at our top 3 choices):
and 4 job offers...
(not to mention 5 years and 2 additional children)
Let's just say I need to buy myself a pair of these:
Because we're moving to KANSAS.
And there are many people here in my beloved central Pennsylvania town that are from there, or went to school there, or lived there from some reason or another, and I have heard nothing but great things about it. So I'm starting to feel excited. We love college towns. And we love that we'll be 40 minutes from an airport and a temple (two things that we are currently 3 and 4 hours away from). Traveling to see my family will be much easier. And for those of you who belong to the same church I do, all of the mid-west church sites are within and hour or two (except for Nauvoo, which is about 5 hours away). So you have a free place to stay when you come to see those. We're prepared to love it!
And go KU!!
