Serendipity

Life is a series of happy accidents, but sometimes I stop and thank God for the plan He has in mind. And it's always better than we could have ever imagined. This is especially true with career paths and friendships...

In 2010, when Ryan began prerequisites for medical school at the University of Utah, we had never heard of St. George's University. We thought we would end up at the University of Utah or University or Arizona, but a couple months into fall semester Ryan came home after having attended an information session about this school called St. George's... He said it looks like this...

Wow. 

We both thought it was pretty awesome and used to un-scroll it from time to time to imagine life on this beautiful island. As we learned more about St. George's we became more and more impressed. In early 2011, I started doing internet searches and started googling. At one point I searched "St. George's University, blogspot" and low and behold, I found a few blogs. I found one that was darling and happened to have a picture of a guy in a BYU PE shirt. Jackpot! I found a little more information, did a little more searching (cough-facebook-stalking-cough) and found... 

Ashley and Blair.

Turns out they're from Davis county, just like Ryan and they went to school with Erin. Small world much?

Like any self-respecting extrovert, I sent them a Facebook message (three years ago exactly this week) asking questions and seeing if they could get together... 

USMLEs were coming up, so Blair was unavailable, so we waited until July to get together. 

We decided to meet up at the Old Spaghetti factory in Salt Lake for a double, which turned into a triple when Blair and Ashley invited... 

Amber and Peter 

Aren't they gorgeous!? 

Amber and Peter were less than a month away from heading to Grenada, so we all talked all about St. George's... the application process, USMLE testing, residency placement, alumni. We also talked all about Grenada... what to take, what to pack, what to expect, etc. It was really fun, and we left with new friends. 

Over the next two years we got together with Amber and Peter occasionally when they were in the States on Holiday. We learned more about Grenada, med school, and them as a couple. They always showed interest in our situation and status--especially when the MCAT came up and the time to apply rolled around. (They have been such good friends and I can't believe they're already finishing their third year!)

When the time came to apply to med school, we applied to schools all over the country and to St. George's. We were excited to apply to St. George's, even though we didn't think that is where we would eventually end up. But, as the post title indicates, life is a series of happy accidents. 

If you look back over the past four years... If Ryan hadn't gone to the U or hadn't gotten that pen, we wouldn't have heard about St. George's. And, if we hadn't found Blair and Ashley and Amber and Peter we probably wouldn't have applied to St. George's. 

Here's to life's happy accidents that have brought about incredible friendships and Our Caribbean Canvas.