What in the world have I been up to?
I still think it’s surreal that I’m officially a doctor now!
Hi all, it’s been a HOT minute (really, a year-ish) that I’ve written something for the blog! However, it was with good reason because a lot has happened during that time. Fourth year of medical school was happening, it was residency application season, audition rotation season, interview season, match season, graduation season, and the wonderful time off before residency season. If you’re still reading my blog and following on Instagram, thank you for sticking with me. It’s been hard to share each and every detail due to privacy and also just because there was lots going on. So today, I’m here to write a little update and share tidbits about my past year! Here we go.
Fourth year of medical school:
I remember being a third year student and all the fourth years telling me that fourth year is the best year. And ever since then, I could NOT WAIT to become a fourth year student. Then comes fourth year… and let me tell you that fourth year of medical school is no joke, mainly from the beginning up until match day. From doing audition rotations (at places that you potentially want to work at), to traveling all over the country to interview, it is exhausting. Physically, mentally, emotionally exhausting. It was amazing to get to see different places and travel, but living even the temporary nomad life is hard stuff. Also, being a nomad fourth year is pricey too (those darn last-minute flights). In the end it’s all worth it, though.
After interview season, life got a little bit easier in a sense that the “hardest” part is over. Going on interviews were nerve-wracking but you get the hang of it after a couple. And then comes the time for you to rank the programs you’ve interviewed at. This was exciting but also daunting because a computer kind of decides where you end up training for residency. The Match process is so complex and if you want to learn more about it, this is a video that sums it up.
Match Week/Day:
If you’ve been following along on my instagram, you may already know what specialty I matched into! I didn’t want to disclose the specialty on social media up until match day because this was such a stressful process already and didn’t want to add any extra stress. If you don’t know yet, I will be training to become an Obstetrician/Gynecologist (OB/GYN for short)! I’m super excited because I didn’t decide on this specialty until toward the latter half of my third year in school. For privacy purposes, I won’t be sharing which program :)
The months in between end of interview season and match week/day was filled with lots of doubt, and anxiousness. It was a time of testing my faith and trust in the Lord to be honest. I have never been more uncertain in my life because once you submit your rank list, you basically give up control so-to-speak. To a lot of people, including me, that is anxiety-provoking. This was a time I really had to lean into “my people”. My husband, family, friends, and God. I kept reminding myself of how faithful He’s been throughout this journey: “If He’s gotten me this far, He will bring me through it.”
Graduation:
This was undoubtedly one of the best days of my life (so was Match Day). It was insane how fast time flew during the moment of graduation, but in the thick of medical school time seemed to move so slow. It was also so fun to reunite with my friends and classmate since most of us have not seen each other in a long time. This was a fun time of celebrating with family (missed you sis!) and friends.
Post-Graduation:
This is the time filled with the most rest i’ve had in a long time, as well as paperwork and modules for residency. I was very blessed to be able to go on a few trips with my husband and friends before I buckle down for more training. Before graduation, I went to Puerto Rico with my gals from college and then right before graduation week my close med school friends and I took a trip to Miami. Then after graduation, my husband and I went to Atlanta and then to Miami and on a Cruise! You will find that many fourth years have lots of travel plans to see places near and far before starting the next chapter that is residency. I think it’s such an amazing time to explore and take some time off because this is one of the only times where you’ll have a longer time off.
Residency:
So I’ll be starting residency in about a week and a half. I’m so excited and nervous all at once. I am so honored to be able to train as an OB/GYN and I cannot wait to learn so much and to contribute to my program but also to the OB/GYN profession. For those of you not familiar, the residency training length for OB/GYN is four years (so an additional four years after medical school) and then you can go on to fellowship in areas like Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, Maternal Fetal Medicine, Gynecology Oncology, Minimally Invasive Gynecologic Surgery, Urogynecology, Family Planning. The amount of years for those fellowships vary anywhere between 2-3 years (sometimes 4 years for some gyn onc programs).
In terms of learning more about why OB/GYN and tips on fourth year, audition rotations, interviews and more I participated in Yang’s “Match Series” which you can read about here. She started this series in order to help third year medical students during the application process, picking specialties and more!
Here’s a little bit of what I wrote:
“Now that you’ve successfully matched, what are some tips you have for third years who are preparing for the application season?
Get your applications in ASAP which means preparing earlier. Gather your documents and forms early. My school did not have a OB/GYN department chair so I wanted to get a LOR from one of my away rotations – so make sure you set up one early enough to be able to obtain a LOR. Be willing to help your fellow classmates during this tough process! Stick together because you will be able to gain valuable information from one another. Be proactive during this process as well, update programs with new relevant information you’d like to share. Also note that your auditions are basically interviews so make sure to also “interview” the residents while you’re there. It’s as much of an interview for the programs as it is for us.”
The Blog:
As you guys know it was hard to keep up with the blog during fourth year of medical school, and I can’t even imagine how I will do it in residency. BUT, I do want to continue to update and share more about life as a resident (sharing more of my experience and not really cases I encounter, cus HIPAA), and of course my favorite things outside of medicine - style, wellness, skincare, fitness, matcha, and so much more!
Thank you again so much for reading this crazy long update and for sticking with me throughout my medical school journey! I know that this is such a small corner of space on the internet, but I am so glad that I can help even a few people in their journey and share that there is life outside of medicine.
Until next time!