I Matched!!

Wow.  What a day.  The Ides of March.  Match Day.

It's been a crazy ride.  I'm SO glad that my med school doesn't make students read where they matched out loud to the entire class.  So many people would've completely broke down crying (in joy or sadness).  Instead, my med school puts all the match envelops in a bin and chooses out names at random.

As each of my friends go up to get their results, I see their faces downcast as they matched their 6th or 8th place.  Finally one of my friends matched her #1 and I was called shortly after.  I was SO nervous - like nauseated and heart palpitations.  Imagine my (shock and) surprise when I matched at my NUMBER TWO rank!!  :-D

It's not my #1, but it's (obviously) the next best.  I had psyched myself up for my #1 so much in my head that really almost all of my other ranks paled in comparison, which is unfair.  It's unreal.  Even now I can't quite believe it.

Actually I'm starting to have irrational doubts now.  Will I be okay with the culture shock of moving so far away?  Did I make the right choice in the order of ranking my programs?  Did I lower myself as a candidate for not ranking more "prestigious" programs higher?  Will I have the time and energy to have a social life outside the hospital?

Like I said, irrational.  In retrospect, this may be the perfect match for me, even though it's #2.  It's a smaller (but not "small") program without fellows, and so more attention can be paid towards teaching me and mentoring me.  It still has all the sub-specialties represented and is a free-standing children's hospital - so my training is automatically solid.  And it's still in the state I want to be in (albeit not quite in the area of the state I'd prefer to be in, but that's okay).

It was a tough match this year.  Lots of disappointed people who applied to a surgical programs, or even medicine programs.  The number of American med school graduates keep growing, but the residency slots are static (some programs may even have shrunk a little as a consequence of the crap going on at the federal government level).  It's only going to get tougher but at the end of the day, most people match, which means most of us will become the clinical doctors that we went to med school to be.

In about 2 months, I will have an MD and have a spot as a pediatric resident.  :-)

Lonely Thoughts

First of all, thanks to those who read my last post.  Alas, said guy in that post has been accepted to a 4-year university in another state (one I didn't apply to for residency) and has a crush on another guy for a while now.  The chances of something physical between us are vanishingly small.  But I'm okay with that, I seriously wish him all the best - I'd rather have him as "just" a friend than not at all.

I'm glad that I'm done with surgery - forever.  It's almost surreal.  It's been such a privilege to be a part of surgery.  I think that's the main reason why I don't hate the OR (operating room).  At no other time can you say you've been hands deep in another person's abdomen, or held a person's bowels out of the way, or cut off a person's leg.  It is a privilege - as is all of medicine - to help someone in such an intimate way.  But whereas I willingly relinquish my privilege to ever do surgery, I acquire the privilege of being the first doctor a child sees in life and helping kids and families through good times and bad.  And that's exactly what I signed up for.
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So the real purpose of this post is to vent my annoyance.  Over the past year, most of my friends have paired up and a number have/will be getting engaged.  And much of our conversations involve them talking (either positively or venting) about their significant others.  And it irritates me.

I know they don't mean to, but I can't bring it up.  I can't ask them to not be with their other half especially when I'm friends with all of them too.  I've apparently been described by some friends as a "bitch" lately for being annoyed and snapping heads off at particular things.  Maybe I have but I'm not going to apologize for it.  I know I'm treated (unconsciously) as a secondary friend by now.  People will bend over for their significant others but make excuses to not hang out when I ask.  I expect no less.

I'm at such a stagnant time-point in my life.  It's frustrating.  I hesitate to act until I know where I'll end up for residency (Match is next Friday! oh my!!).  But here everyone is on the way to getting married and I'm not much further than I was since I started this blog . . .

Maybe I should just focus on me, my career, and accept that I'll be alone forever.