Friday Filler: Match Day!

Today is Match Day at medical schools all across America. I work at one of these schools, and this morning I stood in the school lobby and watched a class of 200 students open their envelopes and discover where they'll spend the next four-to-eight years of their lives. It's very exciting, the atmosphere like unto a carnival.

Some graduating seniors do not get accepted into the residency program they want. So while hundreds of students with their friends and families are leaping for joy and celebrating, here and there people draw into themselves and, in some cases, weep openly. Yes, these people are all going to have medical degrees in a couple of months, and even those students who don't get into their program of choice all have jobs lined up for them come summer, so they're lucky, right?

Still, it must be disappointing, to have your hopes pinned on being a surgical resident at Johns Hopkins only to learn that you'll actually be a family medicine resident at Denver General or wherever. That's not what I wanted to do with my life, you might moan, while all around you there are people who are going to go off and do exactly what they wanted to do with their lives. Maybe some folks weren't meant to be surgeons, and that dream was ill-founded in the first place. I don't know. I'm not here to draw conclusions or turn this into a lesson. Mostly, it's Match Day in America, and a lot of people all across the country are having a really good day. Good days are rare, and cool. So have a really good day.