Match Day
On Friday March 19th I found out that I matched into my #1 choice for residency in Corpus Christi Texas! I am so grateful that the match worked out this way and excited to be planning a move to Texas.
Leading up to Match Day
Even though I’ve known for years that finding out where I would train for residency would come down to the match process, as the day got closer it definitely felt different than I expected. I was more anxious and scared than I anticipated I would be, and I definitely felt much more impatient than I expected. It’s a different headspace to be in when you’re looking into the distant future thinking, “yeah that’s fine, the match will tell me where I live and train for 3-4 years” versus when the possible move is approaching quickly and you want to start planning where you’re going to live and making arrangements with family. Overall I was mostly able to hold onto excitement as my primary emotion, but there were definitely days where anxiety and fear prevailed over the happy excitement, and I think that’s okay and very normal. Although I felt that my interviews had mostly gone well, on March 14th the day before we found out whether or not we matched, I found myself panicked asking myself “what would I even do besides emergency medicine if I don’t match?” I think it’s good to stay humble through this entire process, but if I could go back I’d try to maybe plan a hike the day before and actively try to keep out of the total panic mindset.
Match Day
In pre-COVID times, Match Day is typically an important medical school tradition where students are all together, with their families, for a big celebration when we all open our results at the same time. I was extremely lucky that my school was still able to host an in-person celebration for us, but due to social distancing guidelines we had to limit our table to one guest. My family is really important to me, so I decided to open my results at home with my family after attending the celebration. It was a really difficult decision to do this. I would never want to be disrespectful of all the work my faculty put into planning the celebration, but I also knew that it was important to me to have my parents, brother, and grandmother all be right there when I found out. I spoke with my faculty beforehand and let them know, and they understood though preferred I would stay for the full celebration.
In true Vegas-Fashion, our results were printed on a card in a deck of UNLV School of Medicine cards. Opening this was one of the biggest moments of my life so far, and I’m still absolutely thrilled and honored to have matched the way I did.
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Dominic and I are starting a new adventure, figuring out where to live and planning the farthest move either of us have ever done. Oh, and at the same time planning to get married on April 24th, and planning a wedding reception on May 8th. Everyone keeps telling us, “that’s a lot of big things in a few months”, but none of them really finish that thought beyond just stating that it’s a lot. I think physicians may not pause so much at our big life changes all occurring right now, because we have to be open to this idea of one day changing our life completely. Not everyone is up for being a partner to a medical student / soon-to-be resident, and that’s okay as this is one crazy ride. But, I’m grateful for my Dominic for being such an unwavering partner in this life. I think it helps that he’s had over 7 years of me warning him that my dream of becoming an ER doc was going to be a long, crazy, wonderful journey. His response has always been, “okay, good. If it was easy everyone would do it. You’ve got this, and we will be great.”