Match Day: Part 1 and 2

My match day was March 17, 2005.

Our match day was done in a "let all hell break loose" kind of fashion. The envelopes were at different tables organized alphabetically, and we basically trampled each other in an attempt to get our envelopes.

Inside the envelopes, was a tiny strip of paper. That 1 cm high strip of paper had our whole future on it.

I matched at my first choice on my rank list, at a primary care program close to where my husband would be working. I was so thrilled that I cried (well, a few tears) and hugged my friends. Ironic, considering I wanted to drop out of that program within two days of starting. It took me six months to get up the nerve to tell my program director that I wasn't coming back next year. No way, no way, no way.

Match #2 for me took place a year later. I didn't do it through ERAS because I was already a resident. I was on evening cross cover and as I sat in my scrubs on the couch in the empty resident lounge, waiting for the other residents to sign out to me, I got a call on my cell phone. It was the program director at the PM&R program where I had interviewed a few weeks earlier.

"We've decided to offer you a spot for next year," she told me.

No fanfare, no trampling, no hugs, no tears, no green Hawaiian leis. But there it was: a spot for me in my dream program.

Now I'm nearly three months away from graduating from this program. I feel blessed that I had the opportunity to train in a field that I love. And I don't throw around words like "blessed" very often.