Relationships in med school pt 10 - So you think you know Tripp Mostertz

The lovely couple. 
Bryn is a first year peds resident at MUSC.

An interview with the one and only, Tripp Mostertz.

Ken: So let's start with where you've lived.

Tripp: Ok, so I was born here in SC and went to grade school here, but then my parents decided they wanted to move, so we went to Utah. Salt Lake City. 

Ken: How was that?

Tripp: It was ok, I think my parents weren't huge fans of it because they didn't like the mormon feel and it was hard to develop deep relationships because they weren't mormon. They eventually decided to move back, I lived here in Charleston for a year. I went to Wando HS, actually. Then I moved up to Clemson where I met Bryn.

K: Yeah, let's get to that. How did you guys meet?

T: Well, we were both band geeks. Bryn - she was really goot at flute. We met right away, but we didn't date until our senior year. I also loved marching band, and I kept doing that at Clemson. We played for the basketball games and all that. 

K: So what else did you do at Clemson?


T: I was an electrical engineering major. I didn't know what that was, but I really loved music and I think I just figured I'd start a recording studio or some crazy shit like that. 

K: And what happened to that track?

T: Well I had this internship my junior year, in this power plant. And it sucked. I didn't talk to anyone, we just worked on fixing obsolete parts. I was thinking my life is over, and that this was going to be the worst thing ever. I had never thought about an advanced degree, and I'd never even really thought about the future, but after that internship I had to think. 

I started taking some bio classes and ended up in this great bioE class where I studied lower limb fractures, and coming up with a quantitative way to interpret the recovery. I ended up turning that into graduate work at Clemson. 

K: And where was Bryn during all this?

T: We went to Clemson together, but when I stayed at Clemson, she moved to Durham to work in a cancer lab at Duke. 

K: So you dated long distance - how was that?

T: It was a challenge that we needed to know this was right. I'm not one to give advice or anything like that, but I think it's important. Like, maybe if you can't survive it, maybe it's not right. I'm not saying there aren't other marriages that don't work out, but at least for me it was good to see. 

K: And then at what point did you get married?

T: Well let's see. We got engaged the winter before she started school, so that must have been around '07. That was right before I defended my graduate work, then I moved over to Durham to work in a lab up there. Then, she started med school in fall of '08 and we got married on New Year's Eve 2008. 

K: That's fun, why New Year's?

T: No reason really, it was just convenient since Bryn had a break. And no one ever has real plans for New Year's so we figured we'd just give everyone a reason to come together and party. 

Actually there was a funny story with the party - I didn't care about much with the wedding. Except the music. I was a stickler for the music, and I subdivided the night into hours with different themes of music. One night Bryn was looking through it and she accidentally deleted the playlist. And I was like ok, I think I can remember what was in each section. And Bryn saw that as a big reassuring moment of us getting married. She was like - "You didn't get mad after I deleted all that music." It was funny but it was a big moment of commitment. 

K: Probably more funny in retrospect.

T: [laughs] Right, right. 

K: And why'd you decide that was the right time?

T: Well, we dated a long time. Like 2001 to 2007 or something like that. And we knew we'd be in the same place for the first time since college. I guess I proposed because I just knew. It's not like I had a checklist or anything like that, but I kind of had an internal one, and I eventually reached the point where I didn't think there were any more checks until I could be sure this was right. I was sure this was what I wanted. 

It's like from When Harry Met Sally, which is actually our favorite movie, but they say something like, "When you know you want to spend the rest of your life with someone, why not make it now?" Actually, and this is funny, but the pastor that did our wedding actually mentioned that movie, and we hadn't even talked about it, so it was like fate or something. 

throwback

K: And how about coordinating the simultaneous move of you to MUSC med school and her to MUSC peds residency?

T: Yeah, so that was hard. I felt like I could get in somewhere, and I really liked MUSC. My MCAT was in the range, and I was really strong in other things. I had good research experience, I did graduate work in bioE, volunteering, all of that. And she was supportive, but at the same time there's no couples matching at this point, so she had to know what I was going to be doing before she had to set up her match list. 

I remember it was a whole complicated process of figuring out when I had to move to South Carolina so I could get in-state tuition, and have a better chance of getting in. In the end it just ended up working out, I got in here, she set up her match list, and of course she had no trouble getting in. 

K: And here you are now. Any last things you want to say?

T: Man, what I don't enjoy is when people complain about studying. Because I fucking love studying. Yeah, some of the material's a drag, but still. I get up in the morning, make some coffee, and I can't imagine doing anything else that I would love more. I took a long route to get here, it was so hard. And this is just philosophical, but dude, this is not bad. All you do is work hard, and you come out with a cool job. This is not bad. 

K: preach.

See you on the other side,

from ken

taking requests for future blog posts. please comment or email.