- Meghana Chapalamadugu tells PEOPLE exclusively about the day she learned she matched with her dream OBGYN residency program at Orlando Health.
- The news resulted in mixed emotions given her recent engagement to Gaurav Gupta, who is currently finishing the first year of his surgical residency at the University of Nebraska.
- Chapalamadugu opens up about their continued long-distance relationship and how they plan to make it work after marrying in May this year.
A single envelope held the fate of Meghana Chapalamadugu’s future as a medical student who hoped to match with her dream OBGYN residency program. Upon cracking its seal, the news left her in shock.
It’s an exciting time for Chapalamadugu, a 26-year-old Florida native who is studying at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and approaching several life milestones. They’re both professional and personal, which amped up her Match Day emotions tenfold.
Chapalamadugu is engaged to Gaurav Gupta, her fiancé who is finishing the first year of his surgical residency at the University of Nebraska upon matching with the program after graduating medical school in 2024. They are getting married in May this year.
On March 21, Chapalamadugu opened her envelope with her fiancé by her side, she learned she matched in OBGYN at Orlando Health. While it’s her dream program, it also brings her 1,441 miles away from Gupta as they continue their long-distance relationship in the years ahead.
“To find out that I matched was incredible. Such a weight lifted off my shoulders,” Chapalamadugu tells PEOPLE exclusively upon learning of the big news. “And then to find out that I matched at such an amazing program was like another, ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t believe this is happening.'”
Naturally, there were mixed emotions for Chapalamadugu upon realizing her dream match would also mean physical separation from her partner while they’re both head down on their respective residency programs.
Acknowledging it “sucks” not getting to live together immediately after they get married in May, since their programs in different states will have commenced, the med student takes comfort in knowing that they “aren’t the first” to face this obstacle.
“We certainly won’t be the last,” she adds.
Maintaining a long-distance relationship isn’t new for the couple who’s been doing it since Gupta started his residency program last year. They have a system down, including weekend visits and “quality time” spent on FaceTime.
“Doing things that are more intentional, having a show or doing a virtual dinner date rather than just being on your phone and scrolling has been really helpful throughout this year,” she explains. “So I think we’ll definitely continue to do that.
Chapalamadugu and Gupta both attended the University of Miami for medical school and undergrad, where they met in 2018. They bonded over a failed organic chemistry class that they retook together, a “funny story,” she says, looking back.
“We met and then started talking and then started dating, and that’s our getting-together situation,” she explains.
Chapalamadugu was confident that she wanted to go to medical school and pursue a career in medicine, but she didn’t know what specifically. “I actually thought that I would hate OBGYN, but I went on my rotation at the University of Miami and I ended up falling in love,” she says.
“The ability to empower women, inform them and equip them with all the knowledge that they need to make the best decision for themselves was something that was really special to me,” Chapalamadugu says of OBGYN.
“I really just enjoyed being able to help women get pregnant, help women not get pregnant, help women stay pregnant, help women not stay pregnant. There’s such a dichotomy,” she continues. “And I really just fell in love with also the patient population. They’re the sweetest.”
The med student adds, “It was just a really special space and I always just feel like there’s always a little bit of magic.”
She and Gupta, who don’t have any direct family members in the medicine field, have each other to lean on for support and relatability as they navigate their continued studies and career journey.
“He’s literally the most supportive person ever. Genuinely, he’s the best,” she says of her fiancé. “I would never dream of quitting and moving to be with him… he would be mad at me if I did that because he actually is someone that unselfishly wants the best for me.”
She adds, “And I think it’s really rare to find — but once you find it, you’re locked in for life.”
Chapalamadugu says it’s “so comforting” to have a relationship that she knows is “literally rock-solid,” especially as she begins this next chapter. “This is my dream career, dream program, dream education,” she tells PEOPLE, looking ahead.
“I am super lucky and I’m in a relationship that I know will stand the test of time. We’ll be fine, of course, it’ll not be the ideal relationship situation, but we’ll make it work,” she says with confidence.
Despite the temporary distance of their respective medical programs, Chapalamadugu and Gupta can be certain of this: They’re each other’s match for life.
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