<a href="https://pixabay.com/vectors/chemist-comic-characters-disaster-2026442/"Source: Pixabay
When I first got married there were a lot of adjustments. One of the biggest is when my wife found out that (a) I had student loans and (b) that I didn't own my house outright.
Now we had discussed a lot before we got married but I never even thought to tell her that I had a mortgage on the house and that I had money left owing on my student loan. Those were debts that are just so common I didn't even consider it needed to be stated.
I was wrong
My wife was very distressed about that. Many tears. Much anxiety. Plus a little drama as well. At that time I found out I could make much more money if I worked in the USA. The nice recruiter told me all about how I could make more money and get a VISA for myself and my wife. She was so worried about the bills it seemed like a good idea to make the move.
I was told I would have to take the TSE and TOEFL (English fluency exams) which I was pretty sure I could pass because I am Canadian. I'd also have to take the law exam and pharmacy practice exam. Not a problem because I'd never failed an exam in my life...well, with maybe one or two exceptions but there are stories behind those.
As expected the TOEFL was no problem at all. The TSE was even easier. The law exam again, that was super easy. Now the pharmacy practice exam. That was an odd one. I didn't know this when I took it but it was an adaptive exam. I'd never heard of one of those before. The short version is that if you get a question wrong they give you an easier question worth fewer points for the next question. If you get a question right they give you harder and harder questions and more points for them.
Well, the Pharmacy exam started easy enough but got harder and harder until the end of the exam I'm getting really REALLY tough questions! I left the exam and cried. My job was based on passing the exam and didn't know what I was going to do with a new wife and no job.
When I got the result I scored 129 percentile. No idea how I got over 100 all I knew was I needed 60 percentile to pass and I got to continue my job. Ahh.. but I disgress I should get back to the surprises.
Unfortunately there were two little surprises that I didn't know about before I went down.
The first surprise was that my wife couldn't come to the USA with me as she was a Filipino citizen and they weren't allowed to come down with their Canadian husband. That was not a good surprise but that is a story for another post.
The second surprise was there there was a surprise test.
Yuck!
I don't mind tests when I can study for them because then I know I can pass. This one was just given to me last minute and I had to pass within 8 hours with no preparation.
What test was it?
A urine test! The company checked all new employees for drugs as they didn't hire drug users. I passed without any issue as I really avoid medication as much as possible and totally avoid any illicit medication.
Still. Last minute surprise tests that could make the difference between supporting my family and being unemployed and homeless.
A little notice certainly would have been nice.
Thanks for reading.
And apologies if I don't proofread this. It's very late night and I'm up with pain from a tooth extraction. Posting so I can distract my brain from the pain...but not really focused enough to want to proofread. Also not up to making pretty formatting.
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