Doctors Share Their Match Day Moments

Passion. Emotion. The feeling that something big is happening and your life is about to change forever. Match Day is one of the most important days in a physician’s career.

MedPage Today asked physicians the following questions:

1. If you could send one sentence to your younger self on Match morning, what would you say?
2. Describe the physical Match Day atmosphere when you opened your envelope: where were you, and what was the first emotion that hit you?

Mary Meyer, MD, MPH

1. If you think Match Day is crazy, wait until you see what happens with the rest of our career.
2. My Match Day was 28 years ago, so I was literally handed a paper envelope in a room with my 150-ish classmates who had made it to graduation. The room felt crazy — some people were crying, some yelling. I remember feeling disbelief, awe, and a little panic. What I didn’t know then was that it was the beginning of an entire career of disbelief, awe, and panic — for which I will always be grateful.

Chloe Nazra Lee, MD, MPH

1. The sacrifices weren’t for nothing; trust yourself.
2. I was sitting between my parents in an auditorium with my class (our school allowed us a few moments to receive the news semi-privately and elect whether or not to share). Honestly, I felt overwhelming relief. The atmosphere was joyful, but extremely tense and it felt like years of hard work, missed moments with loved ones, lost sleep, and personal sacrifice finally felt like progress; there was an endpoint that allowed me to embrace the reality — which seemed so unreachable at times — that I would actually be a practicing physician in the field I chose and love. Surreal.

N. Adam Brown, MD, MBA

1. Be proud. Soak it in. You’ve worked hard and sacrificed so much to get to this point. But also be grateful; you didn’t get here alone. Also, recognize that while you may have clarity about the next step in your career, you have no idea where this journey will lead. That uncertainty is part of what makes the journey worthwhile.
2. I was sitting in the auditorium at ECU [East Carolina University] School of Medicine surrounded by my classmates, and you could feel the tension in the room before anything even started. Once the envelopes opened, a mix of emotions hit classmates across the auditorium all at once: shouts of excitement, some disappointment, tears, and relief. I was immediately excited, knowing I would be living in Philadelphia for the next several years. Within minutes of opening the envelope, I sensed that my life and focus had shifted, knowing what the next several years would look like and where we would be.

Share your Match Day memories with us in the comments below.