For most medical students, Match Day and graduation signify the culmination of years of rigorous study, personal sacrifice, and unwavering determination. But for Drs. Abigail and Jason Hurt, this milestone season marked something even more profound: the beginning of their life as a family.
In the spring of 2025, the Hurts celebrated not one, but three life-changing events: matching into residency, graduating from medical school, and welcoming their first child, Griffin, all within a matter of weeks.
As a married couple attending the UK College of Medicine, Abigail and Jason navigated the demands of medical school together, supporting each other through the highs and lows of training. This year, the pair successfully matched into UK residency programs in Bowling Green, with Abigail pursuing obstetrics and gynecology and Jason entering internal medicine.
Griffin arrived just 10 days before Match Day, making an early but unforgettable entrance into their lives. His first days were spent in the NICU, where the Hurts found themselves drawing on the very resilience and perspective they had cultivated throughout their medical education. In many ways, the experience reframed their understanding of the years they had spent preparing to become physicians.
“Those years of hard work were preparing us to be doctors,” Abigail reflected. “But we now realize they were also preparing us to be his parents.”
On Match Day, the couple returned to the NICU with signs in hand, eager to share their match results with Griffin and the nurses who had become a vital part of their support system. The celebration stood as a powerful testament to hope, gratitude, and the quiet strength of new parenthood.
By commencement, Griffin was healthy and home, joining his parents for their graduation ceremony — though, in true newborn fashion, he slept through most of it. Still, his presence was symbolic. From the NICU to the graduation stage, Griffin had been with them every step of the way.
The Hurts’ journey is a remarkable example of what it means to persevere through uncertainty, to hold fast to one another, and to embrace the unexpected. It is a story of academic and professional achievement, but also a story of resilience, love, and beginnings that arrive right on time.
