Tomorrow is the one year mark of my match day. For those of you not in the medical field, Match Day is the biggest day of your career. It's when you find out where you are going to do your residency. It's a pretty big deal. Especially if you don't match into a residency. You have to enter into the scramble, which is a painful process of finding out which residencies have openings and apply and hope you find one to take you. As you all know, I had to go through this process. I blogged about it last year, you can go back and read all of the details. That's not the purpose of today's post. I have been reflecting all day on the things that I have experienced and who I have become because I did not match. I want to share and praise God for what HE has done in one short year.
Since I had been praying for God to provide a way for me to stay in the area and not have to leave my church, once I saw there were openings in the area in Family Medicine, I knew this was God's plan for me. I had begun to sense He was about to do something big in my life, but I never imagined it would be like this.
By applying for pediatric residencies, I was able to do month long rotations in pediatric heme/onc, pulmonology, infectious disease and ER. These are all rotations that I would not be able to do as a family medicine (FM) resident. So blessing #1 from scrambling is that I have that much more experience with diseases in children than the other residents in my class. Also, by having to scramble, God got, still gets, all credit for putting me where I needed to be.
I was able to see my nephew moments after he was born and see my sister hold her son for the first time. Since my residency is focused on clinical, not hospital, rotations, I have had every Sunday off this year so far (I will have to work Sunday's next month). Which means, not only did I get to stay at my church, but I still get to teach Sunday School twice a month. I was also able to join a women's Bible Study once a week and recently was able to co-lead a study on Nehemiah. I fell in love for the first time and was able to experience what being in love and being loved really feels like. I have met so many amazing people, have been touched by so many patients and am overly blessed with what God has given me this year.
Most importantly, in the last 3 months, thanks to circumstances I know only happened because of my match results, I have grown more as a daughter of Christ than in the last 10 years combined. I never realized how deeply wounded I was and I how I was continuously shutting people out. I never realized that even though I was confessing faith and trust in God, I was actually still trying to make my own success. For the first time in my Christian life, I am 100% surrendered to God's leading and will in my life. I finally trust and believe in His plan and can't wait for HIM to continue to shape my life. I have been made for something great. I will continue to touch and change lives. I will continue to give HIM all the glory HE deserves.
I can't wait to see what this next year will bring!
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