Match Day. It's a day in which the keys to the future are dangling right in front of every medical and pharmacy student who is residency bound. On this day every year, aspiring young professionals anxiously await the results of their pending residency placement. It is a day that determines where they will live, work, and train for the next season of their lives. It is a day that sets the course of their career in motion. On this day, the key to the future is either handed to the recipient, or it is dangled painstakingly out of reach. Every year on this day in March, I am taken back to a time when God showed up in a major way and taught my husband and I what it looks like to truly trust His match for our lives...
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It was 2009, and we literally had the world before us. After years of intense education to obtain our Doctorate of Pharmacy degree, we both had a drive and desire to take our careers even further by pursuing post-graduate clinical pharmacy residencies. We were deeply in love but willing to wait on marriage, as we wanted to follow our individual dreams and trust that we would arrive at a future together when the timing was right.
We had traveled the U.S. together, exploring residency programs and interviewing at our top choices. When the time came to rank our program preferences, we decided to enter the Match program as a couple; this way, we would submit only certain combinations of residencies that we were willing to accept as a couple. This would allow us to have some control over the distance between us, although we had not planned on entering the same program. However, the night before our final Match submissions were due, we had an uneasiness about entering as a couple. Our feelings for each other were unchanged; however, there was a caveat that if one member of the "couple" did not match with a program, the other person would automatically be disqualified from matching as well. So we "uncoupled" for Match purposes.
In March of that year, at a dial-up internet cafe in the jungle village of Misahualli, Ecuador, we stood in line, anxiously awaiting our chance to check our email on the only computer. While most of our friends were back in the U.S. and had already received their Match results, we were on a weeklong medical mission trip over Spring Break and had limited internet access...
Finally, when it was our turn, I checked my email first; I had matched with my top program choice!! I was elated as I stood by while J.J. logged into his email. But the look on his face was not the same as he read his results... he had not matched at all. How could this be?! He was a highly qualified candidate with big aspirations - and his top choice program had even called him the month before, encouraging him to rank them high because he was "one of their top choices." And yet, here we stood... one of us with our top choice and the other with no choice --- and now realizing why our decision to "uncouple" for the residency Match had saved us.
In the midst of our disbelief and confusion, J.J. also had received an email from a pharmacist friend in North Carolina, who was a part of a residency program only a few hours' drive from the one I had matched with. She would have had no way to know that he hadn't matched; however, she was emailing him "just in case" he needed other options and to let him know that her program was still seeking candidates. This program was only a 2 hour drive from the program I had matched with, compared to the 7 hour driving distance between mine and JJ's first choice programs.
The problem was that we had limited contact with the outside world while in Ecuador and wouldn't be able to reach out to this program until our return to the States the following week. By that time, it was highly likely that candidates and programs who were still seeking a match would have already connected. Our mood was one of heavily mixed emotions; while J.J. was truly excited for my good news, I was devastated for him... and we both were unsure what it meant for our future. In a very somber mood, we walked across the street to eat lunch at a restaurant on the village square, where we sat outside on the patio to process our thoughts and attempt to make sense of what was happening.
During the middle of our meal, a monkey began swinging down from the rafters above us, seeming to taunt us. This was not an unusual sight in the village, as monkeys were everywhere. The restaurant even had spray bottles filled with water on each guests' table, with the intent to use these to spray the monkeys and deter them from our meal. This monkey was particularly persistent, though, and in one quick swoop, he reached down and grabbed JJ's soda and scurried up onto the roof above us. Before we could even process what had just happened, a waterfall of Inca Cola came pouring through the rafters...right over JJ's head! Truly, when it rains...it pours.... and it was the comic relief that we needed in those tense moments. Somehow, in that moment of laughter, we knew that everything would be okay.
We finished out our week in Ecuador, trying to put the looming future out of our minds.We had a strange sense of peace in the following days and somehow knew that we were in exactly the right place at the right time, as contradictory as that seemed. We were able to focus on serving the people of Ecuador through our medical clinics, and in return we were abundantly blessed by our time spent with them.
Upon our return the the U.S. the following week, J.J. reached out to the program our friend had emailed him about. It was a program he had not even applied to previously, but he was intrigued at this point. Through multiple phone conversations, including an interview, J.J. and the program director agreed that this was truly a perfect match... and it was! J.J. proceeded to commit to this program, which turned out to be a fit better than any he had previously considered. We were only a short drive away for the next year, and J.J. made lifelong connections through his time at this program. The program director even became one of his close friends, and was eventually a groomsman in our wedding!
So, here's to everyone who is holding their breath for some type of "match" result in their lives. Whether or not the outcome is what you had originally hoped for, be encouraged that God's match for your life is far better than anything that you could have dreamed up yourself. It's not always easy to trust what's behind a door when you can't see the other side, but when the match Maker hands you the key... take it. And unlock the door to your next adventure.
Matched,
L
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It was 2009, and we literally had the world before us. After years of intense education to obtain our Doctorate of Pharmacy degree, we both had a drive and desire to take our careers even further by pursuing post-graduate clinical pharmacy residencies. We were deeply in love but willing to wait on marriage, as we wanted to follow our individual dreams and trust that we would arrive at a future together when the timing was right.
We had traveled the U.S. together, exploring residency programs and interviewing at our top choices. When the time came to rank our program preferences, we decided to enter the Match program as a couple; this way, we would submit only certain combinations of residencies that we were willing to accept as a couple. This would allow us to have some control over the distance between us, although we had not planned on entering the same program. However, the night before our final Match submissions were due, we had an uneasiness about entering as a couple. Our feelings for each other were unchanged; however, there was a caveat that if one member of the "couple" did not match with a program, the other person would automatically be disqualified from matching as well. So we "uncoupled" for Match purposes.
In March of that year, at a dial-up internet cafe in the jungle village of Misahualli, Ecuador, we stood in line, anxiously awaiting our chance to check our email on the only computer. While most of our friends were back in the U.S. and had already received their Match results, we were on a weeklong medical mission trip over Spring Break and had limited internet access...
Finally, when it was our turn, I checked my email first; I had matched with my top program choice!! I was elated as I stood by while J.J. logged into his email. But the look on his face was not the same as he read his results... he had not matched at all. How could this be?! He was a highly qualified candidate with big aspirations - and his top choice program had even called him the month before, encouraging him to rank them high because he was "one of their top choices." And yet, here we stood... one of us with our top choice and the other with no choice --- and now realizing why our decision to "uncouple" for the residency Match had saved us.
In the midst of our disbelief and confusion, J.J. also had received an email from a pharmacist friend in North Carolina, who was a part of a residency program only a few hours' drive from the one I had matched with. She would have had no way to know that he hadn't matched; however, she was emailing him "just in case" he needed other options and to let him know that her program was still seeking candidates. This program was only a 2 hour drive from the program I had matched with, compared to the 7 hour driving distance between mine and JJ's first choice programs.
The problem was that we had limited contact with the outside world while in Ecuador and wouldn't be able to reach out to this program until our return to the States the following week. By that time, it was highly likely that candidates and programs who were still seeking a match would have already connected. Our mood was one of heavily mixed emotions; while J.J. was truly excited for my good news, I was devastated for him... and we both were unsure what it meant for our future. In a very somber mood, we walked across the street to eat lunch at a restaurant on the village square, where we sat outside on the patio to process our thoughts and attempt to make sense of what was happening.
During the middle of our meal, a monkey began swinging down from the rafters above us, seeming to taunt us. This was not an unusual sight in the village, as monkeys were everywhere. The restaurant even had spray bottles filled with water on each guests' table, with the intent to use these to spray the monkeys and deter them from our meal. This monkey was particularly persistent, though, and in one quick swoop, he reached down and grabbed JJ's soda and scurried up onto the roof above us. Before we could even process what had just happened, a waterfall of Inca Cola came pouring through the rafters...right over JJ's head! Truly, when it rains...it pours.... and it was the comic relief that we needed in those tense moments. Somehow, in that moment of laughter, we knew that everything would be okay.
We finished out our week in Ecuador, trying to put the looming future out of our minds.We had a strange sense of peace in the following days and somehow knew that we were in exactly the right place at the right time, as contradictory as that seemed. We were able to focus on serving the people of Ecuador through our medical clinics, and in return we were abundantly blessed by our time spent with them.
Upon our return the the U.S. the following week, J.J. reached out to the program our friend had emailed him about. It was a program he had not even applied to previously, but he was intrigued at this point. Through multiple phone conversations, including an interview, J.J. and the program director agreed that this was truly a perfect match... and it was! J.J. proceeded to commit to this program, which turned out to be a fit better than any he had previously considered. We were only a short drive away for the next year, and J.J. made lifelong connections through his time at this program. The program director even became one of his close friends, and was eventually a groomsman in our wedding!
So, here's to everyone who is holding their breath for some type of "match" result in their lives. Whether or not the outcome is what you had originally hoped for, be encouraged that God's match for your life is far better than anything that you could have dreamed up yourself. It's not always easy to trust what's behind a door when you can't see the other side, but when the match Maker hands you the key... take it. And unlock the door to your next adventure.
Matched,
L
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