Match 2014 Episode 2: The middle chapter

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 NRMP emails went out. So I wouldn't have to look like this:

Back to the bridge: my phone decides to play "I got a feelin'" by the Black Eyed Peas, from their album The END (Energy never dies)

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 12:01 pm and all I want to do is a happy dance on the bridge. Unfortunately it's icy and I'll probably break my neck if I tried. So I settle for a "YES" with a windmill of my arms and ended up in the following Rocky pose:

Complete with snow and hat and everything!

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.

I predict there will be two more posts: the moments before the match - blogged "live" from Dunlop. And then a blog of the aftermath / the epilogue.

PS who is the first person I see in suite 100 as I get in? Helene of course. It was epic.