After a lot of discussions and reading, I asked Dr. Dillon if I could be his graduate student to work on a Ph.D. in physiology, after my masters was done. He asked me if I knew what kind of research project I wanted to do, I said yes and gave a brief outline of a thesis. He smiled and said yes.

I would still need to officially apply to the Ph.D. program and take some standardized tests, but as long as those things went ok, I would have a graduate assistantship, be able to work towards a Ph.D. and enter a field where I would be helping people. I had previously thought about going to medical school to be a physician for that purpose, but by doing research I would ultimately be able to help a much greater number of people. The athletic training had allowed me to help people and I had wanted to do research in athletic training. But that didn’t work out. Doing medical research in vascular physiology might well be an even more meaningful and far-reaching way to aid others, people who were not poised between winning and losing a game or contest, but life and death.

All of this meant that after 4 years of college and more than a year in a Master’s program in biological sciences, I would be looking at another 4 years to get a Ph.D. Nonetheless, this career direction felt right. I would end up with a bunch of degrees—a bachelors, masters, athletic training certification and eventually a Ph.D. Then I would be Dr. Joseph F. Clark, EMT (retired), BA, MD, ATC, Ph.D. As my brother said, I would have more degrees than a thermometer.

My masters went well, the research was published and I got my master’s degree in Biological Sciences. Then I took the graduate record exam known as the GRE. The GRE is divided into a general and subject test sections. I would definitely take the general section but which subject test I should take was less than clear. Because my bachelor’s was in chemistry, taking the chemistry test would be logical. But because my master’s degree was technically in biological sciences, I was advised equally to take the biology subject test. Because I could not decide, I chose to take both, in two different sittings. After I had done this, several colleagues advised that doing so was a bad idea. But when I had a chance to talk to members of the admissions committee, they saw this as a way to demonstrate breadth of knowledge. They said that scoring well in both subject tests, as well as demonstrating improvement in the two general tests, would be seen as a positive. I guess it worked because I was admitted to the Ph.D. program in Physiology at Michigan State.

While I was leaving the sports medicine world, I did not sever all connections to the paramedical or allied medical fields. I maintained my EMT certification throughout my Ph.D. studies. I also maintained my Athletic Training Certification (ATC). With my EMT certification and ATC I spent some time working in the local emergency room for extra cash. There I met a couple of interesting people. One was John McRorie, a nurse in the emergency room who was also a graduate student in Physiology. The other was a nurse named Laura Foerster, who was a law student. Laura, John and I seemed to gravitate to each other because we worked in the emergency medical field to pay for advanced education. I worked on the ambulance and in the emergency room; John was a former medic in the military and studying physiology with me; and Laura was going to law school in Lansing. We all had an edgy outlook engendered by the grim realities of life and death we faced daily to pay for our studies. We all also aspired to maximize our potential via a graduate education. The three of us hit it off and we became good friends sharing stories, and commiserating about working on advanced degrees. John and I were going to be in some of the same classes, so it looked like we would be able to study together and have some similar perspectives based on our past experiences in the paramedical fields.

Laura and I both liked to cook, so we could do tag team cooking by working together to cook nice meals on occasion. We even went to John’s house (John’s wife was Susan and they had two cute little boys) and cooked for his family. It was a lot of fun going to someone else’s house to cook and make a mess there and then not have to clean it up. Susan insisted that she would clean up after us and Laura and I let her have her say in her own kitchen.

We formed sort of a regular lunch club to meet and talk about our individual hassles viewed through the mutual prism of having survived some of the seedier sides of life. On the lighter side, because we liked to cook, on one occasion we each made cheesecake and had a mini taste testing competition. Laura won with a traditional cheesecake with chocolate raspberry glaze, but John and I ate the most, so we all won.