Match Day

A few Fridays ago was one of the biggest, most exciting, most stressful days of my life/ career thus far. It was what all people refer to as "match day". It's the day when the fancy computer algorithm decides the fate of medical and pharmacy students across the country. We all find out if we'll do residency training and where it will be. 2 weeks prior I had to submit a rank list of all the programs I interviewed with in order of where I wanted to go. And then I had to WAIT. It was pure torture. I said all I cared about was matching somewhere but truly I was really hoping to match at my first choice.  Darren and I had long discussions about how I should rank things and once we finally decided I was so peaceful and content about the decision that I really really wanted it to happen. Those two weeks were so hard not knowing. I'm SO happy that's over now.

We knew we would get an email sometime before noon on March 20th, but we didn't know exactly when. I was up and out of the house before 6 to get to my rotation on time so I figured that was too early to get the email so luckily I didn't feel the need to check my phone incessantly at that point. Once I got to my rotation around 7 I checked my phone before I got out of my car and then walked into the building. Right when I was sitting down at my desk and putting my stuff away I got a text from my friend Emily with a screenshot of her email showing that she matched at UT Medical Center and she said "will you be my co-resident?" I had already confided in Emily that it was my top choice and thank goodness I could answer YES! And then I saw the hands down most exciting email I've ever received!

I was soo happy about where I matched that I just couldn't stop shaking and smiling. It was such a great feeling. I immediately texted Darren to tell him the good news. Darren and I had talked a lot about if moving would be the best choice for us or if it would be better to stay in Knoxville. At the end of the day I knew there wasn't a better fit for me than at UT and the people there are some of the smartest, most caring, and most fun people I know.  I'm so lucky to be able to train there! Darren also loves his job in Knoxville and we have a great little house and we're just not ready to leave yet. I'm pretty sure Darren also started looking at season football tickets 5 minutes after I told him. I'm so thankful to have matched at my top choice and can't wait for the next two years, as tiring and difficult as they might be.

Luckily Darren was in town on match day (I was living at my parent's house for the month for a rotation) so I convinced him to come take me out to lunch to celebrate. I was so distracted once I got the news that morning with texts flying everywhere and finding out where all my friends were going also. It was SO hard to concentrate. We had a clinic that morning so I had to try to be focused which I succeeded at for the most part but I was just on top of the world. Luckily my preceptor was very understanding and let me take an extra long lunch to celebrate. We were (and still are) so happy!