Thank you, Daruma. I am coming home to Los Angeles!
The Daruma doll symbolizes good luck and determination and is an interesting part of Japanese culture. These papier-mâché dolls are used for goal-setting and encouragement. When you buy one from a temple or a store, the doll has two giant white eyes with no pupils, representing Bodhidharma, a Buddhist monk who according to legend meditated for nine years straight and lost his vision.
After making a wish, you can draw in the pupil for one eye. This alerts Daruma to your wish and motivates him to help you so that he can regain full sight, symbolically reaching enlightenment. You can draw in the second pupil only after you’ve achieved your goal or your wish has come true.
A couple weeks ago, 4th year medical students participated in Match Day. At 12 PM EST, all the students across the country opened envelopes that revealed where they would be going for residency. That moment is the culmination of years of school and a long application / interview season. I had applied to be an internal medicine resident and interviewed at 20 hospitals across the country, including an unbelievable stretch of 5 interviews in 5 straight days in 3 different states. I can guarantee nobody else did something like that because it was a combination of extremely lucky scheduling and pure desperation on my part to squeeze in as many interviews as possible.
Ultimately, I matched into my #2 choice out of 24 programs, and I am heading back to California!! I graduate from medical school in 2 months and will be taking a 3,000+ mile, 11 day roadtrip driving across the country back home to Los Angeles.
It was not easy and I am very lucky and grateful for the opportunity. If I had known how difficult it would be to return to CA either for medical school or residency, I very possibly would have went to either UC Berkeley or UCLA for college instead of fleeing the state. But the reason I left in the first place was for those supposed “life experiences” being in a different part of the USA. If I could re-live my life, it’s hard to say what I would choose to do…
But at last, my Daruma now has achieved enlightenment.
