It's Coronation Day! Except It's Medical School

This was 8:02 a.m. on match day in February when we found out that RG got into med school at UTMB. It was an awesome day. All day I just kept saying, "It's over!!!" because I was so stoked I would never have to think about the MCAT again. In retrospect, LOL. It's only just begun or whatever.

All those days in winter of 2011 where RG was driving from San Marcos to Austin for MCAT prep from 9-12, then back to San Marcos to work, and then back to Austin for MCAT prep from 6-9, then back to San Marcos to study... and deal with a needy girlfriend texting passive aggressively and demanding attention and pouting (spoilet alert: that was me & I was the worst)... and then wake up and do the whole thing over again for 4 weeks straight... those days sucked so much. I have too many bitter and angry thoughts about the way the med school application process is structured. Honestly, it's just a rude system and emotionally & mentally abusive #IMHO, but that's another story for another day. This morning I'm just celebrating how long gone those days of acceptance uncertainty are and how grateful I am for the opportunity that Ryan was given and the awesome place that it brought us to now. I keep saying that we couldn't have planned this outcome or this timing any better than it worked out, and it's true. UTMB! OMG! It's real life. It's kind of hard to believe that today, RG started medical school. #isthisreallife

Since seeing Frozen in February, whenever a really good day arrives I just feel like Princess Anna on Coronation Day. She wakes up, looks like a hot mess, and then realizes what day it is and just explodes with joy and bursts into song. Today was Coro-freaking-nation Day in the Gates home. I went to bed at 4 a.m. (#oops #crafts #netflix) but woke up at 6:45 like a mad woman. I look so bad right now, to channel my inner Princess Anna hot mess mode, of course, but making RG breakfast this morning was my own rendition of "For The First Time In Forever" with a little less dancing and a little more coffee. It's Coronation Day! It's the day that RG has been dreaming of his whole life and the day that I've been dreaming of since his dreams became mine, too.

I feel really lucky that I had a sweet friend to go through the SOMSWP with. What is SOMSWP? It's the Significant Other Med School Waiting Process. I made it up 5 seconds ago. It's the process that a significant other goes through after they say to their med school applicant beau, "Where you go, I will go! Where you stay, I will stay! Your dreams are my dreams!" That sweeping declaration of support basically guarantees two things: 1) that said significant other is supportive and awesome & 2) that said significant other may cry a lot off and on for a few months and have to develop super-patience and super-trust and super-flexibility. It was the luckiest thing to have someone who experienced a similar situation that I could vent to and share the frustrations with. Both our guys got in and everything rocks now, but it kinda sucks to love a really awesome and brilliant and compassionate guy and have to sit idly by for weeks and months while schools don't recognize his awesomeness. Fortunately, schools came to their senses and now my fellow SOMSWP veteran, Iliana, and I are significant others of two very handsome and promising future physicians. I still remember exactly where RG and I were walking in front of my hospital when I saw on Facebook that our friend Logan (Iliana's future doctor boo) was accepted. Felt so relieved and happy for Logan and for Iliana... it was all over/just beginning! It's crazy how one little email can just change everything. I'll never forget our match day moment or that huge exhale after the good news sinks in and settles. Thank God it's behind us and RG's dreams are before us. That SOMSWP, though... it's an emotional rollercoaster There really should be a support group. If you're in the SOMSWP, my advice to you is to hang in there, Joan.

hang in there, Joan!

So now I begin day one of my week off between my internship ending and my job beginning. Today I will be grateful for the opportunities we've been given, the time we've had to just chill together this summer before RG started school, that we ended up in Galveston, and the chance to have a self-care week before becoming officially official at my job.

Proud of you, student doctor RG! xo