I've come back to this blog a few times since last posting but find myself with little to say in the way of an update. I suppose my writer's block is mostly hesitance at sharing too much of my plans - I was pretty sharing with my residency plans (not just here, but with my friends and family) and that was a bust. I guess I just want my next step to be nailed down before I start blabbering about it. On the other hand, I don't want the blog to idle and maybe there's someone out there in the interwebz that can glean something helpful from my ramblings.

So after no match, I applied to two of the three programs that were still open. One program told me they had found someone (I expect an applicant they had interviewed but not ranked) and the second program invited me for a phone interview (happening today).

I also interviewed with a lab at my (lab animal) external rotation. Without going into too much detail, they do some very intense work and are a demanding lab. I think it would be a fantastic experience to participate in but they want someone for a few years at least and the hours are unforgiving, especially when we start to think about children. So my finger is still in that pie, but likely not for much longer.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, I applied to small animal practice jobs. I would love to do exotics only but I would settle for a dog and cat shop that also sees exotics and work my way up from there. The realization that I could be happy doing something that I had decided strongly against for so long was kind of weird to say the least, but I need to be honest with myself. Maybe lab animal isn't the path I was meant to take. I've been regarding my lack of match as wake up call - stop and look around, rethink things and such. Which sounds very hippie-esque, I know (I think my mother wants to shake me) but I'm going with my gut on this one.

Cut to the chase: today was match day and I didn't match anywhere. I'm bummed out of course, but I'm looking ahead to what I need to do next. So many considerations have entered my mind, some discarded and some retained. I'm trying hard not to think that I've disappointed anyone and all of my awesome friends and family have been, well....awesome :)

Danny and I are going out to dinner tonight to discuss. We shall see.