Starting a new life

Tomorrow is the big day -- Match Day. In June of 1999 I sat down in a lecture hall for the first day of a freshman chemistry class. Since then I've spent nine years going to school (including several stretches when I had to drop out in order to earn money for more school). I gave up a whole other career, racked up enormous amounts of debt, endured endless hours of brain-busting studying, worked at various labs and institutes, competed with much younger and more energetic fellow students, moved halfway across the country to go to medical school, worked in hospitals and clinics around the state, experienced the sleep deprivation and occasional humiliations of being a medical student on the wards, shared intimate and dramatic life experiences with patients and colleagues, spent more time studying, traveled all over the country interviewing for residency positions, and learned what a trooper Lady M truly is. After all of this, tomorrow I find out where I'll do my residency. I'll still be a trainee but I'll finally be a doctor, and after all of this preparation I'll finally start to be the one responsible for my patients' care.

We start a new life in June and tomorrow we find out where it will take place.