For those who did not match, don’t worry the best is yet to come for you!
Tuesday March 20th: I remember it clearly, I got to the Hospital extra early to start working up my patients for my Internal Medicine rotation. I could barely sleep the night before because the anxiety was simply killing me. A bunch of scenarios kept running through my head, “what if I didn’t match?” And “what if the programs who participate in Phase 2 are not the programs I am looking for?” It was endless. I felt my mind going through a whirlwind of thoughts.
Throughout the past week I tried very hard to keep myself distracted, whether it was going to the gym, studying for NAPLEX, watching Netflix and more. The wait was unbearable especially for someone like me who likes to have things planned.
Fast forward back to Tuesday morning, I kept myself busy initially working up my patients and conducting readings. However, I found myself refreshing my mail every 2 minutes (okay i’m lying every 30 seconds) to see if my match result had come in. I was refreshing my mail like this since 4 AM in the morning. Finally around 7:40 AM I finished my workup and wasn’t going to start rounds till 9:30 AM, so I decided to go see my patients and ask them about their home medications to keep myself busy and keep the anxiety at bay.
Once I finished speaking to my last patient, I started making my way to the elevators around 8:10 AM and decided to finally check my email again. That was when I saw THE email that said “Your ASHP Match Result…” and I swear I could feel my heart beating a million times a minute. I took a deep breathe and clicked opened the email, once I saw the “Congratulations” and the program I matched into, I started tearing up. It was my dream program. I couldn’t believe it. All the hard work, all the sacrifices I made were truly worth it for how I felt at that exact moment. I’m also pretty sure some people in the hallway were wondering why I was crying, but I couldn’t help it.
If people only knew the long nights, the family struggles, the countless hours I dedicated not only to studying but to my leadership responsibilities, research and more they would know exactly how I felt at that moment and it was simply priceless. All I have ever wanted to do was to make a positive mark in society and I found pharmacy to help me make that mark.
I cannot wait to be a PGY-1 resident at my dream program and continue my goal of providing nothing but optimum patient care. Thank you to everyone who has supported me and continues to support me, you will never be forgotten.
Now although this was a happy day for me it was also a very disappointing day for others too who did not match. Don’t worry the best is yet to come for you! You just have to be a bit patient and trust me everything you have ever wanted will happen for you. If you truly desire a residency, keep going and don’t stop especially with Phase II and the scramble coming up! Reach out to your professional network, make improvements where you need to in your application. I will be praying for you all and I wish you nothing but the best. Also remember not matching is not the end of the world, there are so many opportunities out there to help you achieve your goal. The future of pharmacy is so bright and i’m so excited to see where all my colleagues will be!
Stay tuned for my next blog post about my residency application process and more!
— Ms Rx Geek
Kgrant