It was a normal Tuesday afternoon when the cell rang..

On Tuesday, June 12th at about 2pm I was in my Central Dallas Ministries office when my cell phone rang. The woman on the other end told me, “Congratulations, you’ve been offered a slot in Michigan State’s class of 2011.” Well this was odd given that my contact there had Emailed me a couple of weeks prior to let me know the admissions process was closed. I don’t even want to know how these last few slots were assigned but this lady, who turned out to be Robin Marsh in admissions, seemed very excited, and in a hurry. She needed to know my answer by Monday. I asked her for some type of written confirmation and she said of course and she would Email me right then. About 2 mins after our convo I got an Email from her, yes her domain was @msu.edu because if it would’ve been from hotmail or something like it I would’ve remained suspicious, and everything seemed legit. There was a letter from the director of admissions, scholarship information, policies and procedures, and of course a request for $750.00 to hold the slot.
Well, this was quite a shock and I recall just sitting there for a minute…

Boy this is cool

What is this??

This is nice, would’ve been nicer a few months ago.

She said Michigan State right?

How long is it until Monday?

What about the University of North Texas Health Science Center Masters in Public Health program I just started?

Classes start in 2 weeks??

After getting over the initial shock, which I don’t think I’m quite over yet, I decided to let my ‘trusted advisors’ know. For those of you I’ve worked with you know what a huge advocate I am of trusted advisors. This was a time when I needed them. In the meantime I also Emailed my MSU contact Tamera Cox who had been a great resource over the past 2 years when I initially applied to MSU. She called my cell the Wednesday before Thanksgiving in 2005 to let me know the Dean had ‘pulled my file’ and wanted her to take a look at me. Since then she’s answered every question I’ve had regarding MSU, and medical school in general. I wanted to tell her I had been told the news, and also wanted to see if a deferment was even an option. I of course didn’t want Robin to think I was ungrateful or anything.

On Wednesday Tamera let me know that deferment would be an option for me, so I had a decision to make.

1. Go now and just let all the logistical stuff work itself out


2. Defer to next year so I could transition from my jobs properly and take more than a week to pack up my house, find a place up there, prep for school, etc.

Interestingly enough my ‘wise counselors’ were unanimous. Their feedback pretty much boiled down to, “You’ve been working toward getting into a medical program you want to be a part of, MSU COM is a great school with a great family practice program, just go and things will work out.” My buddy Sean actually put it in perspective when he said, “you’ve done bigger things in 2 weeks.”

Early Saturday morning on June 16th I made my decision, I would be a part of the 2011 class at Michigan State University’s College of Osteopathic Medicine. I would try to rent my house, store my Mustangs, and just work the rest of the logistical stuff out to be in East Lansing by Monday, June 25th.