The Match

I got to know part of my "Match" results yesterday ; I say "part of" because I am yet to find out where I have matched but the good news is that I have matched into a residency program somewhere,alhamdulillah.I find out about the "where" bit on the 15th of March and shall of course let you guys know. I called my father to let him know as soon as I found out and not too surprisingly he did what he has always done in situations like these. Over the course of these past two years of taking exams and the fact that I have spent lots more time at home ever since I graduated I came to realise now that after almost every exam he'd ask me what my "gut feeling" was about how I did(and now that I think of it this goes as far as I can remember). My answer(since the time I was fifteen) has always been the same : "I don't know and right now I really don't care" and usually thats the end of it all. Now this might make him seem like those pushy parents who are on their childrens' backs to do well...oddly...I've never felt that way...but I am totally amused by this "what's your gut feeling?" question which also happened to be the recurrent theme after all of my interviews and then when I was about to submit my rank order list. Anyways, I have never been much of a thinker (DP says thats a blessing...I think he's just happy that I can't bug him on account of that in addition to all the other things I bug him about)...yeah... so not being a thinker helps and keeps me sane...but every time my father pops the "gut feeling" question its like my self set equilibrium gets all topsy turvy. So, yesterday he popped the same question about what my gut feeling was as to where I'd end up.My answer : "I don't know and right now I really don't care". What was a little weird this time round was that instead of letting it go like he usually does...he asked me to tell him what my top three choices were again and even though I knew he was always the strongest advocate of the program close to home...the moment of silence that followed after I'd told him my choices again made me realise how much he'd love for me to match at that program (my numbers two and three are out of state programs). It was as if he was taking it all in and balancing out the entire me moving away bit with the protective fatherly instinct.It also made me feel bad for that impatience riddled reply and made me think about how at times we take our parents' love and affection for granted....so,I told him that I hoped very much to match at my number one but if it didn't happen that way it would be Allah's will and be for the best,inshaAllah. I hope this took some of his worry away at least...it probably did.
The match is quite unpredictable.I personally know of four people who didn't match and just knowing that somone who went through all this with you and got unlucky is terrible. I feel very blessed to have made it through.From the blogosphere ,both Usman and Uzer got matched. Unfortunately, Moiz didn't...which is very upsetting.The next two days is whats called the "post-match" or the "scramble" where people who have not matched try and get a spot at programs that have unfilled positions. I don't know whether Moiz is going through the scramble or not but we wish him the very best and will be praying that things work out well for him inshaAllah.