Weddingbee Blog

I’ve been thinking lately about the sacrifices we make for our significant others.

As you know, we currently live in Baltimore. The reason for our relocation here was because I chose to go to school here.

You see, I had known for a while that I wanted to go to medical school, and I applied and was accepted to schools right after graduating from college. Although there are lots of great school in Pennsylvania, I liked our current school the best, and therefore chose to matriculate here. It was still early in our relationship, and while I knew that making the move to Maryland would be hard on us, I selfishly took the plunge - not really thinking about how it would impact him.

When Burger decided to apply to medical school the following year, our relationship was much more serious, and the thought of being apart for three or four years was devastating to us both. Being the wonderful guy that he is, he was sure to apply to our school, and we were beyond thrilled (though not at all surprised, he’s a smarty pants!) when he was accepted. I kept quiet, not wanting to push him in any one direction, and I was pleasantly surprised when he told me that he was withdrawing his applications at the other schools. He said that there was no hesitation in his mind - it meant much more to be with me than to pursue his medical education at home in Pennsylvania.

And so we’ve spent the last three years together in our new home, Baltimore. We are away from our families and most of our friends, but we have each other (and we’re getting a stellar education).

Now it’s my turn to sacrifice.

As we near the end of school, the next phase in our medical training is upon us - residency. Because I am a year ahead of Mr. Burger in school, if I were to graduate and move on to residency without him, there would be a pretty good chance that we would be apart for a few years, as residency program selection is a little more complicated than applying to medical school. For this reason, I am putting residency plans on hold and delaying graduation one year until Burger and I are finally on the same timeline.

At first it was hard to think that after almost four years in school it wasn’t going to be officially over for another year (ugh ), not to mention that all of my friends will be moving on to bigger and better things without me. But of course the choice was without question for me (just like it was for Burger three years ago) - a little extra time in school in order to (almost) guarantee that we will never be apart? Sold!

I know that we are not in a unique situation. Lots of couples make sacrifices for one another - whether it be for a move, a new job, or educational pursuits.

How have you and your significant other sacrificed for one another?