Against the Odds

22

Miranda walked into the house and immediately walked down the hall to her bedroom. She was so tired it was unreal. Becoming chief resident was one of her aspirations, but the amount of paperwork combined with the opening of the new clinic,  left her drained. And now to add to it all, she wanted to change specialties. She was offered a pediatric fellowship and that was her next venture.

Miranda opened the door softly and glanced over at the bed. Ben was knocked out and already snoring. He had papers, highlighters, and textbooks scattered all over the place. She figured he must have been going over a business proposal for his job. Quietly, she moved everything to the chair that was in the corner of their room before taking a shower. After drying off, she changed into pajamas and slid into bed beside him. She then made a mental note to call her parents tomorrow on her lunch break to talk to her kids, who were staying with them for a few weeks.

The next morning Miranda woke up and went into her closet to pull out an outfit. Ben wasn't in the room so she figured he was probably working out and just like she thought he came into the room sweaty with workout clothes on.

"Good morning baby." She smiled, pulling on her jeans.

"Good morning," Ben spoke and she heard a little bit of anger behind it.

"You ok?" She questioned, looking him over.

"I'm just fine." He replied, pulling his shirt off.

"You just coming in from a run?"

"Yes." Ben shrugged nonchalantly grabbing a towel to go take a shower.

"Wait, babe...There's this pediatric fellowship and I think I want to do it. I have been working with children for the past 3 months and I think it's for me. It's two years."

"Miranda that's great. You'll be great."

"Thanks. I know we talked about me stepping back after I became an attending, but it's just two more years, and I--"

Ben stared at her for a moment watching her talk and he felt tears of frustration pool in his eyes. Once again he was on the back burner.

"Miranda I'm done."

"What?"

"I am done waiting. I am done accommodating. I am done being selfless. Take the fellowship, but I'm done with this." He expressed.

He was glad that he was already in medical school because if he had heard this weeks ago, he probably would have waited again, but when Richard offered her a fellowship in general surgery and he was going to take off a year expediting the time so she would be an attending earlier. He couldn't contain his excitement and started school right away.

"With what our marriage?"

"Yes. I'm done with our marriage."

"Are you giving me an ultimatum?"

"Miranda, I am not giving you an ultimatum. I would never make you choose between your job and me. I want you to take the fellowship and I want you to soar. I'm just telling you that I won't be here. I have taken care of you and our family for the last 10 years since I was 20. I put my life and career on hold. I let you go on and become a surgeon while I stayed back. I was damn near a single parent, but I did all of that so you would be able to live out your dreams and not once did you ever think about mine. Every time I wanted to continue with my dreams and career, something else of yours came up. We agreed that this year I could start and now you want me to wait 2 more years. I can't and I won't. I took my MCAT's a while ago and I applied to medical school. I got in all over the US. I picked UW and I've been in school for weeks now. You would know if you ever had time to talk or anything besides work."