Passing my First Term of Medical School and SNMA Region IV Conference Highlights

Can you believe we covered all this in only 13 weeks?!!!!

I officially passed my first term of medical school!!!! Words can’t express how happy I am to finally be finished with anatomy (even though it’s my favorite subject, lol), and being able to have this last week off was soooo needed! I also know I said I would write a few posts and get things accomplished, but for the majority of the week I did absolutely nothing, and it felt so good! I caught up on sleep, watched TV, spent a day in a sauna, went to the movies, and pretty much did any and everything I wanted/had not been able to do these past few months.

GA-PCOM SNMA Chapter at the Region IV Medical Conference

On Friday, I headed to downtown Atlanta for the SNMA Region IV Medical Conference which was held at Morehouse School of Medicine this year. We started off with a tour of the school, and then we toured Grady Hospital which is the largest hospital in the state of Georgia. Later on that evening, a mixer event was held, and it was really nice interacting with other medical students from various schools in the region. I was also very proud of my school’s SNMA chapter for showing up in such a large number. After the mixer, there was another social event at a nearby bar, so we spent most of the night there and had a blast. I have not been able to go out much since school started, so being able to have fun with both my classmates and other medical students was a great experience.

A great conference :-)

On Saturday, the conference seminars started around 8am, and I was very impressed with the selections. “Preparing for the Wards” was the first seminar I attended, and it gave really great information on ways to stick out and receive excellent marks when we start rotations during our third year. After that I headed over to a discussion panel on women in medicine, and we discussed double standards against women in the profession, and the ways that we can stick out and assert ourselves in the field. I also attended a suture clinic in the MSM anatomy lab, and it was really nice to be able to see the difference between their lab and the one in my school. I was also excited when they let us keep the tools we used afterwards! My favorite seminar of the day though was a panel that discussed balancing our personal lives with medicine. It included married, single, and parent physicians, and they all discussed the ways they manage to make it all work for them on a daily basis. We concluded the conference with a banquet that had Dr. Montgomery Rice (Dean and President of MSM) as a keynote speaker, and she also came by our table to speak with us before the dinner began which was really nice. I truly enjoyed being in the presence of such amazing people, and the conference made me want to strive that much harder to achieve my dreams.  

We work hard, and we play hard!

After the closing banquet last night, my classmates and I headed out on the town for one last night of fun before second term starts tomorrow. We danced the night away and had a ton of fun. I even lost my voice, so you know it was a good time, LOL! I’m starting to realize the importance of balancing medical school with a social life, and last night really confirmed that for me. Hopefully, this term I will be able to find that perfect balance that leaves me less stressed out. But anyway, I don’t want to ramble, so I guess I’ll end it here. We start second term tomorrow, and I am ready to put my best foot forward and really conquer this term. I’ll make sure to do a better update later on this week though, so until next time!