This is pretty late in terms of when this actually happened, but better late than never, right?
The match is kind of weird. It's extremely stressful wondering if all the hard work of the past 4 years is going to pay off. It's exciting though because during the interview season you have all these people treating you like the prettiest girl at the dance so to speak. They're really convincing when they say that they'd be excited to have you in their program. The problem is that I've heard too many horror stories about very competitive candidates not matching after hearing from multiple program directors that they would match there and then not matching there. I felt that I was a competitive candidate, but I there's always a chance that you don't match. Like I said - the match is kind of weird.
But then Match Week came. Monday of that week we found out that I had indeed matched! It was such a relief. The process of finding out was pretty anti-climactic: I got an email that said congratulations and that I had matched. No other information. So we got to wait until Friday to find out where. Sariah and I were speculating like prospectors for gold or stock market investors. Back and forth we went, trying to figure out where we would be going for the next 3 years. One minute I would feel like we were going to match at a certain program and then within another 30 I was convinced that we were going someplace else. Round and round we went for 4 days until 1 pm on Friday.
I've been pretty nervous before, but holy wow, I don't know if I've ever been quite this nervous and excited. The last time I think my heart beat this intensely out of anxiety/anticipation/nerves was when I proposed to Sariah. I think Henry could sense that something was up too because Sariah and I were both jittery and constantly checking my phone in some vain hope that we would get the email earlier than expected. Finally, after hopelessly distracting ourselves with Netflix, I heard the email notification noise on my phone. It was from my school, congratulating me on matching into my #1 choice, the Memorial Family Medicine Residency in South Bend, IN.
I was pretty shocked, but a very happy shocked. When we were ranking programs, I felt fairly strongly that we weren't going to match there even though it was at the very top of our list. I was convinced that we were going to match to a program in Colorado. I was extremely impressed by this program when I interviewed with them. They care about the community and give back to it through various outreach programs. They are in front of changes that come to medicine. They value families highly. They treat everyone very respectfully. And most importantly, I felt like I was a good fit there. I was and still am extremely excited, honored, and humbled to have matched there.
I get to train to become a family doc and I couldn't be happier.
