Matched!

I don't like to leave depressing/trainwreck posts at the top of my blog, and I have awesome news to share, so I'm posting two days in a row. Hell has officially frozen over. Or it's about to, with yet another blizzard on the way...

I got a job! Well, a residency position. I originally wanted to apply to residencies in general dentistry so that I could spend a year learning things I hadn't learned in dental school and building up my speed, as sort of a stepping stone to working as a real live dentist. Plus it's easier to find a job and you can make more money if you do a residency first. The divorce changed that for me, or so I thought-- kind of tough to be on call at a hospital when you are a single mom. So I never applied.

Then, earlier this month, I started thinking about doing the AEGD (Advanced Education in General Dentistry) residency program at my school, because their call schedule is a lot more manageable than smaller programs where there are fewer residents. I wished I had applied, so I asked the director about possibly taking any spots left open after the "match". He replied that he doubted there would be any spots left, so I should immediately get a match number because the match was closing in three days, and that he could interview me the next day.

Actually, it went something like this:
1:50: I send email whilst sitting in boring class.
1:55: Program director responds.
1:56: I open his email and start reading.
1:57: My phone buzzes with a text from a friend saying "Dr. [program director] is coming to look for you RIGHT NOW! HEADS UP!"
1:58: Classroom door opens and he pokes his head in and asks for me.

It was all very sudden.

Anyway. It worked out. I matched to UConn. I have a job for next year. I'm freaking ecstatic. !!! And pretty flattered, because a lot of people in my class didn't match to any program and the whole thing was all very last-minute for me... as in, I kind of circumvented the entire application process...

So, I can breathe easy and know that I'll at least have benefits, a stipend, and a place to work next year. I can support myself and Caroline and we won't be out on the streets. Which is always a good thing. Now I just need to refocus and find the motivation to get through boards and the next three and a half months until graduation. Easier said than done, these days, because all kinds of things are resurfacing and/or going wrong and/or distracting me from what I am supposed to be doing.

Said the girl who sat on the couch blogging and blasting loud music instead of studying for a board exam which is... um... tomorrow.

But I know I can do it. I know I can. I've come this far.