The day is upon us. Ever since we received the succinct but satisfying “Congratulations, You matched” email on Monday, we have continued to oscillate between relaxation, anticipation, and impatience. We tried to keep ourselves busy as Friday’s noontime enlightenment approached. Mere hours until our Match is revealed, we will recount our last week as unmatched medical students.
Monday was Martha’s father’s birthday, so we nabbed his favorite meal (Peking Duck!) from one of Chinatown’s hidden treasures and drove to celebrate his big day with the family in Kennett Square. Dinner and dessert with the Browns was lovely, lighthearted and of course, delicious. The topic of conversation expectedly ventured into potential Match locations, causing our excitements to gallop off, only partially reined in by bridles of anxiety. As always, we had a wonderful time on the farm.
Tuesday brought rain to Philadelphia, so we hunkered in at the medical school to do some work on our research projects. More exciting, we both had the opportunity to introduce faculty and resident award recipient at the Penn Pearls celebration. It was an honor to pay our respects to teachers that make Penn Medicine special. Finally back in our home together, we got creative in the kitchen, making multi-layered vegetable loaded homemade pizzas. We went to sleep easy with full bellies.
Wednesday we were, sadly, mostly apart. Martha had meetings with important people: first her faculty mentor and then her best friend from high school. While the topics differed, she enjoyed both mightily. Jon had an educational day, first going to witness a Youth Court hearing with the Physicians for Social Responsibility and then attending his weekly class in Mental Health Ethics. Just another day in Penn’s unique offerings.
Thursday was Trauma Day. No, we weren’t working in the Emergency Department. Yes, we assure you we weren’t hurt. Instead, we volunteered to be standardized trauma patients for people learning Emergency Response Skills. We were done up with make-up to look like victims of trauma (see picture). For six hours, Martha was an unrestrained driver in a head on collision (wear your seatbelts folks!), while Jon sustained a crush injury in arctic temperatures. We returned home after our day of pretend injury, got cleaned up, and then went to some parties with classmates. Seeing the rest of our class coming together, the Match enthusiasm and energy was overwhelming. We found it hard to sleep, but finally, today arrived. And soon we will open our envelopes, sending us to…
-Jon and Martha Kole