(I recognize the timing of this post may be a little suspect, but I assure you, this is no joke.)
It's taken a long time for it to sink in, but finally two weeks later, I think I've finally accepted that this is real. For the week or so after matching, I had to keep repeating to myself that I had matched. Seriously. I didn't think this was ever going to happen, so it was so surreal to have finally gotten in. Even now, though, it's still so strange to think that in 6 years time, I will be an orthopaedic surgeon.*
It's mostly strange to have an end goal, a finish line, a concrete timeline. I have lived in this migratory purgatory for so long, not knowing what the next year will bring and having to constantly move to keep chasing opportunities, that it's strange to have stability for the foreseeable future.
I'm going to be in one place for 5 years (!!!), with the same people who will be invested in training me and helping me become the best damn surgeon I can be.
Over the years, getting to do orthopaedic surgery had become this vague idea that I wasn't sure was actually going to happen, like this elusive thing that was always just out of reach. But now it's real, concrete, and so incredibly (but pleasantly) strange.
Oh, and I don't have to move. I matched at the program where I'm doing research. Woohoo!
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* I'm anticipating doing a 1-year fellowship, like the vast majority of orthopods these days, hence the extra year of training.
