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Last week I went on one of my last interview adventures and drove to the heart of Texas. I accepted 2 different interview offers in Texas and was able to schedule them both on the same week making life just a bit easier. My first stop was Temple and my second stop was Dallas.

The drive from KC to Temple was about 10 hours plus some stop time. I have become a little smarter about this road trip business and started bright and early(5am) to beat the rush hour, packed plenty of snacks, and loaded up the car the night before. I actually really enjoy the drive time for the most part. I'm that girl jamming out as I drive down the highway and as music is one of my favorite things in this world road trips have become a bit of an escape. Since I left early in the morning for Temple, I was able to wait until the day of my interview dinner to drive up giving me an extra day in KC, which I may have used to pack and go on a second date.

Temple is basically a large town in literally the heart of Texas. It sits between Houston, Austin, and Dallas with each being within a couple hour drive. It is home to 2 different lakes and lots of hiking. I had a wonderful experience at the pre-interview dinner. The residents were very welcoming and went out of their way to talk to each of us and the Tex-Mex was incredible! Since it was 65 degrees we were able to finish the evening out by the fire pit making s'mores and talking football.
My actual interview day went very well. I feel like I have finally found my stride when it comes to this interview thing. I think a lot of people in the process go through and come up with scripted answers to all the questions they think might be asked in the process. I really didn't do that. Maybe I should have, but I went with the wing it and be sincere/candid approach instead. I much more prefer having a conversation than being drilled with questions and I try to gear all my interviews towards something much more like that.  Most of the time I am pretty successful in leading the interview towards being more of a conversation. They treated us to lunch out by one of the lakes which was beautiful and delicious. Did I mention the residents were really nice?

After Temple I headed towards the Dallas area. I had an extra day and had initially planned on using it to hike, but Texas got a cold front and they were facing highs of 35 which was better than being at home, but not good hiking weather. So I spent the day in Fort Worth checking out a little bit of the area.

My last couple days in Texas, I spent in Dallas. The Dallas Emergency Medicine program is one of the largest programs in the country and services the largest(I think) ER in the country. I didn't quite remember that when I headed to the interview dinner and was a little overwhelmed when I walked into a house of tons of people. It was very clear that the residents were all very close with each other and spent a lot of time hanging out which is something I like in a program. Again the food, Tex-Mex is just good food and they had diet Dr Pepper(they speak my language). I also met one of the residents who I was pleasantly surprised to hear was from my small hometown, St Joseph. Typically I tell people that I'm from Kansas City during the process because people know where that is and then when they ask if I grew up there I always say I grew up about an hour north of there. So when I asked this resident where he was from his response was, "Kansas City, well actually I'm from a small town about an hour north of there." Small world. Again another group of really great residents and I felt my actual interview went very well.

After I finished up in Dallas, I headed home and took the long way home. Basically my GPS took me to a small highway that went through a lot of cities meaning I was going from 70 to 35 mph every few minutes which is not fun on a 10 hour drive so I had to add a little extra time to my drive to get back to the interstate, but otherwise it was uneventful.

All in all I had an incredible trip to Texas. I have one last trip left next week and I will officially be done leaving the hardest part. Making my rank list, though I think I am finally getting to a point where I can make a decision.

Posted by Katie at 7:20 PM