Hello all! It’s been a while since I posted about not matching into general surgery earlier this year and I wanted to post an update about my intern year and how I’ve been doing.
For everyone who told me as a med student that residency is hard and I will want to go back to my fourth-year of med school, you were wrong. Residency is hard but if you are doing what you love, it is so worth it! Although my responsibilities have increased greatly as a resident, I feel like I’m actually making real decisions now and am able to help patients in ways that I wasn’t able to as a med student. I have to admit, being in a prelim spot is an awful place to be and a constant reminder that I still need to go through The Match again this year but I am lucky to be at a place where I’m doing general surgery every day. I am also fortunate to be surrounded by supportive people who treat me the exact same as the other interns, which I’ve heard is not the case everywhere you go.
I reapplied again this year to general surgery and only general surgery. These few short months as a surgery intern have only reaffirmed how much I’m meant to be here doing what I’m doing. I ended up applying to way more programs than last year because I was worried that I would be looked down on as a prelim and that I would have a harder time getting interviews than last year. To my surprise, I still received plenty of interviews and felt safe going into interview season. Despite the huge cost and time requirement of interview season, I managed to go on a good amount of interviews with the blessing from my current program who was willing to give me the time off. I am now done interviewing and sincerely hope that I won’t have to do it again until fellowship season.
As I look back on the past few months, I feel that I have grown so much since Match Day 2018. I am truly appreciative of where I am today and have learned so much since then. There is rarely a day where I am not scrubbing in the OR, which has been my guiding light since July 1st. My advice to those of you going through interview season or who will be going through it soon: try to find a place where you’ll feel at home. The people you surround yourself with will make or break your residency experience. Find a group where you fit and you will have a great experience, I promise.
