It was the tail end of the summer... (the video has nothing to do with pathology but the song makes me happy)

Or technically the beginning of the autumn but the south holds onto its summers longer than most places. We are in that flux of fall where the mornings have a chill to them while the afternoons burn all of that away and we're left walking around holding hoodies that seemed like a good idea eight hours and -20 degrees ago.

I talked to my sister last night and she's settling into a new home in a new state and will start a new job on Monday. Then today I see that Forrest has been offered and accepted a position in his home state. And I'm happy for them, but at the same time so jealous.

I asked our course director today how early is too early to apply for jobs and she reminded me that last year one of our students had accepted a job offer in October (which is coming up quickly!). Every year there are one or two students who have a job before Thanksgiving, and having talked with a few of my classmates about it, we're all already keeping an eye out for openings in the places we are most interested in.

California and New York almost always have a few openings (I got a letter in the mail yesterday from a hospital in San Fransisco about a job, I'm assuming they spammed the AAPA mailing list), but if you have a more specific place that you'd like to work it may take a while for there to be a position there so you have to be proactive about keeping an eye out.

I think the married students in my year will be the first to start seriously applying since it takes longer to find jobs for two people than it does just one. Of course, by now half of us are married and having to take a spouse's job prospects into consideration. So we'll see.

For me, I want to go ahead and have an idea of where we'll be a year from now. There are houses to sell back in SC, a husband who needs to find a future employer, and research about a new area that would have to be done to ensure good schools and recreation options for the kids. I told myself that I would at least wait until October before beginning to apply because before that just felt so ridiculously far out. It is asking a lot from an employer to wait ten months for an employee and I am very aware of that.

And part of me is just sad about the prospect of moving away from here. I was trying to explain that to my sister last night. I have never lived anywhere long enough to put down roots but I feel like I know Durham better after just fourteen months than I did the city I lived in before for three and a half years. The kids and I are part of the community of our little town, we recognize people from school and sports at cubscouts meetings or at stores or at playgrounds. I've never had a hometown but this place feels like home and I'm going to be heart broken to move away.