Tomorrow is Match Day for the 4th year medical students. It's a day when medical students across the country find out where they'll be going for residency. It's pretty dramatic. The whole nation opens their letters at the same time. The east coast opens theirs at noon and the west coast opens theirs at 9am.

Our school does it with breakfast. =) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oNBDMfOj3E

It's a very emotional day. Just thinking about it makes me a little choked up. I cried instantaneously when I got the phone call from Ed Dagang, the admissions director for UC Davis med school, asking me "how would you like to go to medical school?" I remember it so clearly. It was one of the best moments in my life. http://heyitzjenjen.blogspot.com/2010/06/some-time-in-past-month-i-should-have.html#comment-form

And now Match Day is one year away for me. I know this year will fly by just like the last 3 years have flown by. And then...I'll be a doctor.

I'm surprisingly kind of ready. Third year has really shown me what life as an intern and resident will be like. Not the whole picture, but the clinical picture. I actually feel very capable to eventually do what they do. The learning curve is steep, but I will learn.

If anything, I worry about practicing medicine after residency. As a resident, by definition you're still training, you still have attendings to ask for help. Then after that, it's all on me. All physicians are forced to be lifelong learners, but the actual responsibility for my patients will be all on me. No more training status to fall back on.