Walking Dead

I. Am. So. Over. It.

This past week was incredibly unproductive, and this next week does not look to be off to a good start. The fact that libraries are closed (or not open long enough) on Fridays and this last Monday (Memorial Day) really screws with me. Then tomorrow I need to pick up my mom from the airport, which cuts a good hour to hour and a half out of the day. Doesn't sound like much, but when you spend 12 hours a day studying, not to mention all those other things like eating and showering (and walking in the morning when I can get myself out of bed), a couple hours is HUGE. So my day will be shortened tomorrow, and I am already behind (for the first time) from last week. There is literally no time to catch up (again, see the length of my day).

To cap it all off, I did the worst that I have done so far on my practice tests this Saturday. I take 2 sets of questions that cover only the material I have done the past week, and then 1 set of questions that is cumulative over everything I have done. I did terrible on the 2 tests over the last week and pretty well on the cumulative. What does that mean? Basically, it means that I didn't study well at all this last week and that the weeks prior I learned it so well it's still with me (at least that's what I think it means). That is very frustrating. How much will one bad week affect my score? The education department at school says not to worry when you get behind (because you will) or when you progressively do worse on the practice exams (because you will), but I just can't help it. I had such good momentum and I've lost it and there's no time to get it back. I guess I'll just have to let it go. So frustrating. And I still have 2.5 weeks left. Ugh.

A positive note: my brother's baseball team blew EVERYONE out of the water by winning their conference (they were the bottom seed) and getting a bid to regionals (their first in 45 years and the only team this year to have a less than .500 record- they had lost more games during the season than they had won). They were the bottom seed in that regional as well. After an embarrassing loss the first night to the #1 seed (#2 in the country), they again defied the odds by beating the #2 and #3 seeds to earn a rematch with the #1 seed tonight. Currently they are getting embarrassed again, and they won't win, but they did SUCH a great job...so much better than anyone expected of them. My brother did amazing versus the #2 seed, and was doing great tonight against the #1 seed (until they left him in WAY longer than they normally do and it kind of went downhill...oops). I'm really proud of him and I hope this earns their team some respect.

That's all for tonight. Definately keep praying for me that I find my motivation again. These last two weeks are so crucial...ugh ugh ugh.

Zoom!

This month has gone by SO quickly. 3 weeks from today I take the boards, and that is so soon. At the same time, I can't believe I've only been studying for 2 1/2 weeks, it feels like this is all I have ever done. I put in a lot of time to be SUPER organized before my studying started, and for me that has really paid off. It keeps me on track and actually makes the studying kind of enjoyable.
What I do NOT enjoy is people with poor library etiquette. Now, most of the time I study at a high school library that is also a branch of a public library. I understand that there will be high school kids in there a lot of the time, and that they can be very talkative and loud. I was willing to deal with that. What I wasn't prepared for was the teachers who don't realize that the library is not the cafeteria nor a classroom. Whisper! When did it become okay to have a full volume conversation in a library?? Maybe I have been in college campus libraries for too long, but if you uttered a peep on some floors of the Creighton or U of A library, you would get many stares of death. No such stares here (unless you count me staring at these noise-y's). I actually got up and left the library today because one teacher was being so loud. Unbelievable.
Anyways, I'm about half way through...pray that I can make it through!

Whoa.

Life is more than a little crazy right now. I have my days planned out by the hour (at times even by the minute) and it's exhausting but I feel oddly centered and calm about it. We'll see if that continues tomorrow after I take 1/2 of a mock test. It's the first one I'm scheduled to take, and it doesn't matter how well you think you know the stuff if you can't answer the questions they ask. Wish me luck!

The End

Yesterday was officially my last day of classes and tomorrow, after my final, my second year will be over. This is just unbelievable to me. It feels like college is SO far in the past, but these last two years have been a complete and total blur. I hope the next few years of my life don't go as fast! (Well, since they will be so stressful, maybe I hope they DO go fast, but then my 20's will be gone! Wow, I can't even think about that. Moving on...)

Yesterday I sat in the seat I have sat in for 2 years and took a look around. Everyone that goes to class was in their seat, and it was so weird to think that I won't be able to look across the room and see the same people in the same spots anymore. With about 30 of us going up to Phoenix for next year, the next time we will all be together will be Match Day in March of 2011 and then Graduation. I'm SO SO excited for Match Day, almost entirely because I want to know what specialties people end up going into.

Now don't get me wrong, I am THRILLED that the "basic science" years are over, that I no longer have to sit in a chair for endless hours a day, that I have no more histology labs, that there will be no more packages of notes. I have long said that if I had to do another semester like the last two years, I would drop out. But, it is freakin' scary. Most of my friends have been adults for a while now, with jobs and/or houses and/or kids. Even though I will still be paying (way too much, thanks to the economy) to learn next year, it will be the closest I have been to the real world, and that is intimidating.

Curves

I am constantly amazed at the curve balls that happen in life. Usually, they couldn't happen at a worse time. They inevitably happen either when things are going really well or when life is so busy there is no time to deal with them. I NEVER remember this many curves in my life before I was in med school. And now, naturally, I don't have the time or energy to deal with them. The really, really scary thing is that my life is going to get exponentially busier and busier probably until I retire, but for the next 10 years for sure.

What a freakin' trip.

Parties and Moving and Tests, Oh My!

Man, these next 10 days or so are B-U-S-Y!

First off, there are a ton of going-away, last-time-the-class-will-be-together-til-graduation parties. I haven't really gotten out there and done things outside of school with a lot of my classmates over the last 2 years, and I'm apparently trying to make up for that in the next week! There are just so many people to see and so many fun things to do.

Next, I have to pack up most of my apartment by May 3rd, which is when I will be going up to Phoenix to live with my parents and study for boards and when an incoming first year will take over my apartment for the next 8 weeks. There is a lot of packing to do and really nowhere to put my stuff at my parents'. It will be interesting to see where I cram it all in.

Oh yea, and I have a final on May 1st. It might be a bad thing, but school is really the last thing on my mind right now. I think the test will be very straightforward, but that doesn't really make up for the fact that I have done NO studying since this class started at the beginning of the month. But with all these other things going on, who has time to study!?!

Med School's Got Talent!

Last night was the 3rd Annual American Medical Students Association (AMSA) Talent Show. Being an exec member for AMSA, my job was to coordinate the dress rehearsals and tech/lights stuff. While 100% of ticket sales went to a great cause (the Commitment to Underserved People, or CUP, program), and it turned out GREAT, the show was WAY more of a hassle than it should have been! From having a hard time recruiting acts, to having acts drop out, to getting last minute acts to fill in (myself included...played the flute with 1 days notice after not playing for 5 years. Whoa!) to people not showing up for rehearsals to hidden fees for renting the auditorium, the pre-show drama was huge. The day of, again people were late, acts were changed last minute, the show started late, SO many people showed up we had to print more programs (a good thing!)...the little hits just didn't change! However, now that it is all over and done with, I definately think it was a success. We raised over $500 for CUP...more than they raised last year! All the people that performed were seriously talented (singing, belly dancing, harp playing, a musical skit spoofing some of our professors) and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. But I sure am glad it's over! Now onto planning my next event...a sorority luncheon in 2 weeks!