Black Monday? Not so much :)

Today is what is known in the med-school community as "Black Monday". Today is the day that fourth year med students find out if they matched at a residency program or not. Here's how the day goes.... at exactly 12pm you get an email from the NRMP saying either, "Congratulations! You have matched!" or "Sorry, you have not matched :( " Well, I don't exactly know what they say if you don't match, and nor do I think they put a frowny face, because I was lucky enough to get the happier of the two emails. Yes, my friends. I will be spending the next three years happily employed as a family medicine resident. However, here's the messed up part: If you do match somewhere, then you won't find out until Friday (4 days from now!) where in fact you did match. If you think that's nuts, then try being an actual med student and having to go through it yourself.

So you may be asking, what happens if you don't match? If you don't match, then you have an hour before the electronic residency application service opens up for you to submit your application to programs that have unfilled positions. And unfortunately, there may or may not have positions available in the field in which you were originally applying to. Meaning, that competitive specialties like Dermatology or Anesthesiology most likely have all their spots filled, and you'd be stuck applying for a Family Medicine residency (which in my mind would be a good thing, but I'm biased). Even worse is that you probably will end up in a location not exactly where you were hoping to be in the first place. So not an ideal situation if you don't match.

Thankfully, I did not have to endure the kind of torture involved in scrambling for a spot. Like I said, I got the good email. The minutes before my iphone ticked down to 12:00, I literally thought I was going to vomit in the doctors lounge at the hospital. Every horrible thought and scenario ran through my head, and I completely forgot all the good feedback I got from programs I interviewed at. Then when I finally got one of the greatest emails of my life, I literally screamed with joy (no one else was in the doctor's lounge with me, but even if someone was I probably still would've screamed). The relief that overcame me was incredible. All the hard work put in over the past five years paid off. 

So I did what any good medical student would do. I took the afternoon off. I went home and high-fived my husband. Went for an amazing run with him and our dog on this beautiful day. Then I played with my wonderful little boy outside all afternoon. It was literally one of the most perfect days. Now I just have to endure four more days before finding out where exactly I matched at and where I'll be spending the next three years as a resident. Strangely, I'm not as anxious as I thought I'd be because I'll honestly be happy at any of the programs. Of course, I'm really hoping to get my #1 choice, but I didn't rank any program I knew I'd be unhappy at. 

So come Friday I'll share with all of you where I matched for residency. And I'm sure that day will be just as perfect as today's.