The Graduate Student's Wife: the beginning

This is a three part story about the feelings that I have gone through as a Grad Student's Wife.  What you read now is the beginning of the journey.

it all started when we were sitting on the corner of our bed in Gainesville, Florida.  Bear brought up the idea of going to study in China and then applying to grad school. I remember being excited for him. I also don't think that I really grasp what it all meant. After his mind was made up that he was going to china and applying to grad school, everything seemed to happen very quickly. Bear applied to a school in China where he would learn mandarin; he got excepted, he applied for a loan, a visa, got lots of shots, we moved to Utah, we got engaged, and within a couple months he left. Roughly 10,379 miles away.

Fast forward through lots of email communications between the two of us, me spending countless hours on Bear's grad school applications,  talking to Bear's past professors on the phone to get letters of recommendation, mailing numerous graduate school applications, and planning a wedding… Bear came home.

throughout the next 6 months a lot happened. Bear was rejected from a lot of the schools that he had applied to. We had no back up plan. Bear got a call from University of Virginia asking for an interview. How perfect, we thought. Bear's best friend (more like a brother) was in grad school at UVA and it would be wonderful to be in Virginia with him. We got our hopes up. The interview process was good. Everything looked and seemed like it was moving along nicely. Until the phone rang a couple weeks later. It was UVA, they were incredibly sorry but they had chosen someone else. I remember my heart sinking.

After getting over the rejection of UVA, Bear had a couple early morning phone interviews with Rutgers University. A week after his phone interview he got a letter in the mail. I was the one who found the letter in the mailbox.  Bear was working at a sandwich shop at the time and I sped over as fast as I could. He wanted me to open it. I was shaking… I saw the first word congratulations and I started hugging Bear. I gave him the letter and he said, are you ready to be an east coaster?

I graduated from college, Bear and I got married, we packed up all of our belongings and took a two week camping excursion across the U.S until we made it to our new home on the East Coast.

left to right: Putting the final touches on some of Bear's grad school applications, Bear in China, Bear celebrating because he got accepted into Rutgers, Me graduating from college.


Left to Right: Bear and I on our honeymoon, traveling across the country, the day after we arrived in New Jersey... Go Rutgers