Radhika Kotak

Big news… haha. The USA is not in our cards anymore. Visa issues (not going into the gory sad details) made us take this decision.

My husband and I saw the American dream together when we were 16. It wasn’t just a dream, it became the blueprint of our lives. Every decision, every sacrifice, every year of the last decade quietly revolved around that one future.

And we didn’t know that exactly ten years later, when we were this 🤏🏻 close to finally living it… everything would flip 180°.

Ten years of hard work. Long distance. Being each other’s backbone through everything. Him completing his master’s in Arizona, me giving my entire self to the Steps and USCE… only to lose it all in one email.

One email -visa appointment cancellation email.

I withdrew from the Match. He left his job. And just like that, the life we had built in our heads for years collapsed. Not because we weren’t good enough. Not because we didn’t try hard enough. But because of something completely out of our control.

It doesn’t feel fair. It feels like grief for a life that was almost ours… like I’m mourning something I didn’t even get to have yet.

It broke something in us. Quietly, deeply.

I have not known anything but the USMLE journey since the day I stepped into med school. I didn’t know I would ever have to look back.

But like Balraj told Samay, “This too shall pass.”

Right now, it doesn’t feel like it will.

So onto NEET PG prep now, with just a few months left. I don’t know how I’ll find the strength to get back to that Step 2 level grind… but I’ll try.

I owe that much to the girl who started this dream at 16.

These pictures are the closest I have to the home we were waiting to build.

Nevertheless, we came back to a home in India ready to hug us with open arms.

And I hope you’ll stay… while I learn how to rebuild from here. 🤍