All the Best Match Day Reactions You Could Ever Want

All the Best Match Day Reactions You Could Ever Want

By Josh Katzowitz, WCI Content Director

For years after my wife’s Match Day festivities, we would pull up either the live feed or the video replay of the latest class' ceremony to watch the reaction of all the fourth years, when they'd learn exactly where they’d spend the next 3-6 years of their lives.

Sure, those ceremonies didn’t match the excitement of when we were the ones tearing open the envelope on that day to discover where we were headed. But watching the ceremony of nearly graduated medical students we didn’t even know was still exhilarating. The yells of jubilation, the tearful hugs with friends and family, and the obvious realization that the grind these people had put themselves through had resulted in something tangible.

Not everybody could be happy, of course. Some people didn’t get their first choices in the match, and they had to grin through the disappointment in front of dozens of their classmates. Watching that on the live feed was fascinating as well.

match day celebrations

Some people didn’t match at all, and if they didn’t scramble into a residency and therefore declined to attend the ceremony, their absence likely was noted.

But Match Day, for nearly every physician, is a day they’ll never forget. Thanks to Twitter and the #matchday hashtag, I followed along this year without the benefit of watching anybody live. I wasn’t even situated in the US as I refreshed Twitter, but the joy was universal.

Some of the reactions were amazing, and some of the perspective taken by others who weren’t directly involved was also helpful for those who might not have gotten everything they wanted.

I collected a number of my favorite reactions, so lets unveil the best tweets I found from the annual Match Day celebrations.

First, the outright joy:

Here’s a fun three-tweet thread produced over the span of a few weeks.

Just think long and hard about whether you want to actually buy that house during residency.

Not everybody was so happy last week, though. Some didn’t match. Some didn’t get their first choice. But that doesn’t necessarily mean their careers won’t be as fulfilling, and it doesn’t mean their lives will be any worse. These tweets provided a nice dose of perspective and optimism.

For those who read the first part of our From Fourth Year to the Real World, series, I’ve been in contact with all the participants—Ariel and Danny, Ava, and Patrick—to see if and where they matched. Make sure to keep your eyes open in this space during the next few months where they’ll reveal their Match Day experiences; whether they’re happy with the result; and how much future salary, geographic arbitrage, and debt played a role in deciding how to rank their choices.

 

What I’m Reading This Week

 

What Life Is Like for a Doctor in Ukraine

Former soccer star David Beckham temporarily gave up access to his Instagram account, where he has more than 71 million followers, and allowed a Ukrainian doctor to show her workday as she continues to save lives during the Russian invasion.

Dr. Iryna, a pediatric anesthesiologist in Kharkiv, showed what her day as a doctor was like, complete with doing rounds in a basement, unloading cargo, and taking care of babies whose homes have been destroyed.

“We are probably risking our lives, but we don’t think about it at all. We love our work,” Iryna said, via the Washington Post. “Doctors and nurses here, we worry, we cry, but none of us will give up.”

Find the video here.

 

A New Side Hustle?

Need a side gig but don’t want to bother with learning about real estate or trying to take a whole bunch of paid surveys? Why not give babysitting a shot? I’m (mostly) kidding, but man, have you seen those babysitting rates lately?

According to Axios, babysitters made an average of $20.57 per house in 2021, an 11% increase from 2020. Considering inflation is currently more than 7%, that’s a great deal—for the babysitters obviously and not necessarily the parents.

It should be noted that the average hourly rate increased only 3.9% from 2019 to 2020, so maybe you should have been paying the person who watched your kids more than you thought anyway.

“The bumps that we saw this last year, it was just really disproportionate to anything we've seen previously,” Lynn Perkins, the founder and CEO of UrbanSitter, told Axios.

 

Some Interesting Feedback

In case you missed my last column, Finding Financial Role Models in the Black and Brown Communities, I got some interesting feedback in the days afterward. The issue of race in the medical and investing communities is an important one, especially when you consider the barriers that many people of color have had to face to become a high earner. That’s why I talked to six different sources (all people of color) over the last several months for that column, and that’s why it’s important to continue discussing and thinking about the issue.

Here are two pieces of feedback I received from those who clearly have diametrically opposed views.

“Enough with the woke stuff. It’s a bad move, and I don’t want to see it here. Your response to criticism from the left should not be appeasement. They’ll take you down completely, and this seems like an obvious pandering capitulation. They won’t back off, they will ruin you.”

And . . .

“Thanks for writing inclusive articles like this one, it's greatly appreciated!”

In our recent WCI reader survey, we had a number of opinions about whether we should write about topics like this (as always, those interested in submitting their own guest post, please do so here). Some readers love it, because they say it’s more inclusive. Some people hate it and say they’ll never read WCI again.

To me, it’s important to have a well-rounded website, where people who come from any and every background can feel included and can learn from each other. I’m not planning to shy away from that kind of diversity as we move forward.

 

Money Song of the Week

During spring break, my family and I traveled to London and France to check out the sights and sounds of western Europe. We were in Paris at the same time Genesis was also in town, playing some of the last shows of its long prog-rock/pop career. I figured it’d be a tough sell to talk my wife into forgoing a late-night visit to the Eiffel Tower so we could watch Phil Collins sit on a stool and sing songs that were popular 30-40 years ago. So, I didn't go.

Instead, let’s celebrate Genesis by making the British group the money song of the week.

Like many Genesis fans, I prefer the early, prog-rock style, when Peter Gabriel wore strange headdresses and sang epically long songs about moonlight knights and forest battles while Collins drummed out exquisite beats (seriously, the dude was a great drummer). But I also think Collins as a frontman and singer was outstanding.

He certainly was in the 1991 tune “Jesus He Knows Me,” when he blasts the infamous televangelists of the 1980s and all of their excesses, the preachers who told their followers that sending them large bundles of money would be the path to heaven. As Collins sings:

“I'm counting my blessings/I've found true happiness/’Cause I'm getting richer, day by day/You can find me in the phone book/Just call my toll free number/You can do it anyway you want/Just do it right away.

There'll be no doubt in your mind/You'll believe everything I'm saying/If you wanna get closer to Him/Get on your knees and start paying.”

Here’s a live performance of the song from 1992. Collins' charisma is extraordinary.

 

Tweet of the Week

Yes, we’ve had 15 tweets so far in this column. But one more won’t hurt.

What was your favorite part of your own Match Day experience? Would you have changed anything with the way you ranked your residency programs? Do you prefer Genesis with Peter Gabriel at the mic or Phil Collins? Comment below!

[Editor's Note: Josh Katzowitz is the Content Director for The White Coat Investor, and his work has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and CBSSports.com. A longtime sports writer, he covers boxing for Forbes, and his work has been cited twice in the Best American Sports Writing book series. For comments, complaints, suggestions, or plaudits, email him at content@whitecoatinvestor.com]

The post All the Best Match Day Reactions You Could Ever Want appeared first on The White Coat Investor - Investing & Personal Finance for Doctors.

Related Posts

Back to blog