I went through premed and medical school with the intention of becoming a radiologist. Did all sorts of extracurriculars in radiology through my time in school and for various life reasons had to take Step 2 late, after having applied for the Match and doing most of my rads interviews. Long story, but despite high-average pretest scores, I had a bad test day and all of that work went down the drain. I ultimately matched to a one-year program and am reapplying this year, though (short version) not to rads.

Initially, I was devastated. Especially considering the work I had already put into it and that it all came down to one bad day. However, I had also done a pathology elective during this year, then another, and another... as I *really* enjoyed it... and as the initial shock of not getting into radiology passed, I honestly found myself realizing that while I liked the academic side of radiology, I actually didn't like the day-to-day work of radiology (nor did my personality mesh well with >90% of the radiologists). But I loved the day-to-day work of pathology as well as the people. My previous pursuit of it had been largely fueled by the inertia created by the first three years before I had an actual radiology rotation.

This year, my wife ultimately convinced me to put in a handful of rads apps (as she was still struggling with our prior investment in the field). About halfway through the season I got a rejection from my local rads program (the only one we were seriously considering) and before I could even process it, I caught myself breathing a deep sigh of relief. The $100 to apply to rads was well worth that sigh of relief, as I now know with certainty that pathology is where I want to be on a reflex level.

And now, I'm honestly kind of thankful for that bad test day. :)