This year for our annual Match Day blog series, Karthik Muthuswamy will be sharing his thoughts and perspective on his own Match Day experience. Check back throughout the week for new posts!
Episode 2--The Middle Chapter
"So I pull out my phone and there it was: a new email..."
By: Karthik Muthuswamy
11:58 am, Monday morning: I'm walking across the South Street Bridge onto campus. Officially, I'm walking to the administration office to pick up some paperwork for the VA (I'm planning to do a rotation there in April).
Unofficially, I'm walking over as a backup: today is the day we find out if we matched or not. If we didn't match, we have to go through the "scramble" process (now called SOAP - see my previous post for more details) to find residencies with an open slot. To do that, it's recommended we be on campus between noon and 2 pm to meet with our advisors to help with the scramble process.
As I mentioned last time, this is the anxious phase for me: if I match, then the excitement will build. My plan last night was to play video games and watch TV till about 2 am so my body would sleep till 10:30 am. So I wouldn't have to nervously pace for too long before the National Residency Match Program emails went out.
It's an oddly calm day on the bridge. It's also snowing pretty heavily given that it's mid/late March. It was like a scene out of a movie. And, out of nowhere, a large gust of wind hits me and swirls around. At this point I thought to myself "hmm, maybe this is a sign."
So I pull out my phone and there it was: a new email. In the little preview line you get with the notification I see this:
From: NRMP
Subject: Did I match?
Body: Congratulations! You have mat...
It's was 12:01 pm and all I wanted to do is a happy dance on the bridge. Unfortunately, it was icy and I'd probably break my neck if I tried. So I settled for a "YES" with a windmill of my arms and ended up in this Rocky pose:
Photo Credit: Flickr/Creative Commons
I am very happy and very excited to have made it this far. I cannot wait to see what happens on Friday. The last few days have been a roller-coaster ride, and I'm sure the next few days won't be any different. But I do like roller-coasters - and now all I have to do is enjoy the fun.
Friday can't come soon enough. I could end up here or, literally, on the other side of the continent.
4 days to go.