The Best Moment of 2014

My Favorite Moment in 2014

In 2014, I went skydiving for the first time, explored Mayan ruins in Mexico, said goodbye to Louisiana and hello to Georgia, met the former U.S. Surgeon General, and even got the chance to see Beyoncé perform up close. Nothing compares to this moment right here though...

It’s the last day of 2014, and it has been an amazing year! I posted the above picture and words on my Instagram feed earlier today, but it was too good not to share on the blog. If you’ve managed to keep up with my posts over the past year, then you know that I’ve been a little bit of everywhere and managed to do everything I wanted. Nothing comes close to the day I received my white coat though, as it symbolized everything I had been working for before that point, and everything that I am working towards today. I look forward to everything that 2015 has in store, and I can’t wait to share it all with you guys. I wish everyone reading this a very wonderful and Happy New Year filled with love, happiness, and the conquering of new heights!!!!!

P.S. I’ve been out of town and I’m also a little under the weather at the moment, but to those of you who I promised specific posts to, they will be coming soon!

Feeling Blessed :-)

I should be studying for my exam on Monday, but since I’ve made no progress the last couple of hours, I figured I would take a break and write up a blog post. Today I had my second standardized patient exam, and although I received great feedback at the end, I have a feeling my score will be a bit lower on this one. I was completely nervous for absolutely no reason at all, but my patient said I did pretty well despite it. I hit all my points though and even had enough time to check other systems, so hopefully I still made an A. We also had our first professional class picture taken today, in addition to individual headshots. I can’t wait to see what they look like when they come out. The photographer showed me my individual shots after she took them, and I absolutely loved them! I was happy that I had my patient exam right before I took individual head shots, because I had my stethoscope with me, and it was a great touch to my pictures. I’ll make sure to share them with you guys when they come in :-)

On another note, today marks five years since I received my bachelor’s degree in biochemistry, and it has now been a year since I received my master’s degree in the same subject. It’s absolutely crazy thinking about all the changes that have occurred in my life over the past five years. Five years ago on the day I graduated, I had absolutely no idea where my life was going. I knew I wanted to be a physician, but I had not received any acceptances into medical school, and graduation also meant that I could no longer be a student worker at the research lab I was in, so I had no idea what I was going to do about money. I also had to move out of the student apartments that I was living in the day after I graduated, so I didn’t even know where I was going to live at the time. All of this was in addition to trying to raise my daughter, who was a toddler at the time. Looking back, I honestly do not know how I managed to keep my faith through all of it, but I am glad I did because everything always seemed to fall into place exactly when I needed it to. Over the years, I have been blessed beyond measure, and because of that, I try my best to be a blessing to all those around me. Right now, I am where I have wanted to be for what feels like forever, and I get to wake up every day knowing that I am working towards fulfilling my dreams. It honestly doesn’t get any better than that. Welp, just gave myself the motivation I needed to get back to studying, so back to the books I go!

Feeling super official today :-)

It’s My First Blogiversary!

Exactly one year ago today, I wrote my very first blog post ever! It was something that I had always wanted to do, but for whatever reason, I just kept putting it off. I don’t know what made me decide to start a blog at the time that I did, but I knew I wanted to tell my story and hopefully be a source of inspiration for others. My main goal was to inspire pre-medical students from all backgrounds to push forward and accomplish their goals without any inhibitions. I also needed an outlet for my thoughts, and believe it or not, blogging has been a great stress reliever. I started this blog about a month after I was accepted into medical school, and a year later, I am typing this as a first-year medical student! It’s crazy how many changes have occurred in my life since I first started blogging, and I am super excited about the things that I will get to blog about as I continue my journey through medicine. I know everyone reading this probably leads a very busy life, so I really appreciate anyone taking the time to read my thoughts. I hope you all continue to enjoy my posts as much as I enjoy writing them, and as always, thank you for reading!!!! 

Getting into the Holiday Spirit!

Microbe Christmas ornaments that speak to my inner nerd

Today I completed my first exam of the term, and it feels so good to finally be over that hurdle. It still trips me out every time the score pops up on the screen immediately after submitting an exam, but with this being the first exam, I wasn’t too upset with my score. I am just happy that I don’t have to worry about practical exams bringing down my average this term. I also feel like this term may be the best one I have this year, mainly because last term was a struggle and next term we start neuro, which has never been my strongest subject.

Our "first" tree!

On another note, it’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas! My microbe Christmas ornaments arrived last week, and they made me super happy! Nothing rings in the holiday season better than a Rhinovirus, Epstein-Barr virus, E. coli, neuron, and pretty red amoeba :-) I even bought a tree and decorated it with my daughter on Friday. Usually we’re never home for the holidays, so I’ve never actually bothered to buy a tree, but I decided to be a little different this year. It was a fun experience playing Christmas music and decorating the tree with my little one, although I think she was just in it for the candy canes.

I live for that smile :-)

The best part of last week was when I took a little break from lecture to attend a holiday luncheon at my daughter’s school. The look on her face when she saw me was absolutely priceless! I told her I would attend, but obviously she didn’t believe me, so it was nice being able to “surprise” her. It made me realize that while school and my goals are important, it’s not worth missing opportunities to spend special moments with her. People always say that children grow up so fast, and I’m really beginning to see it. So far, I feel like I’ve made a pretty good effort in balancing motherhood with medical school, but I know the quality times spent with my daughter will become few and far between especially when I start rotations. With that being said, I’ll take advantage of our recorded lectures and make an effort to attend more of her school functions and special moments. Unfortunately, she has a class holiday play next week on the same day I have a mandatory lecture, so hopefully I can convince my professor to let me skip out on the first hour.

I never miss an opportunity to bond with my little one!

Other than that, I have an OMM quiz tomorrow and an exam covering managed patient care on Wednesday that I need to study for, so I probably won’t post again until the end of the week or early next week. As always, I love the comments and e-mails that I get from everyone, and I apologize for not being able to respond as fast as I used to, but I promise I will get to them all. I hope everyone has a fantastic week, and hopefully you all are feeling the holiday spirit as much as I am!

Term 2 of Medical School: Let the Fun Begin!

Notes, notes, and more notes!

Last week we started our second term, and it looks like this one will be more intense than last term! Just last week alone, we covered 15 lectures, and that’s saying a lot considering we only had class Monday through Wednesday. It also seems like the professors we have this term are determined to fit as much information as possible into one Powerpoint slide, and the packets are thicker than ever! It definitely looks like I will have to make the switch to a bigger binder before the end of the week, but I don’t feel too overwhelmed yet. Today, we had six lectures over the course of seven hours, and I think the biggest adjustment thus far has sitting in lectures all day. Last term we usually had anatomy or OMM labs in the afternoon to break up the monotony, but anatomy lab has now been replaced with more lectures. The good news is we are now covering the basic sciences that I am familiar with, so I feel completely in my element. I just hope I feel the same way after our first exam next week!

Bonding and education: a win-win for us both!

On a slightly non-school-related note, having an entire week off before second term and an additional two days off after we started was just what I needed! Not only was I able to enjoy my Thanksgiving, but I accomplished all the small tasks I had been putting off for a while. I was even able to pre-read for today’s lectures which is something I never have time to do. My daughter was also happy about the free time, and we put it to good use. Yesterday, we took a trip down to Atlantic Station and explored Bodies: The Exhibition and Extreme Dinosaurs. After studying anatomy and doing dissections for the past thirteen weeks, it was a great experience for me to see all the parts I had worked on beautifully dissected. It put even my best dissections to shame, LOL. I think the only part my daughter enjoyed was seeing the fetuses as they transitioned from just a couple of weeks to a full term infant, but she was blown away by the dinosaur exhibit next door, so it was a win-win for everybody. Other than that, I need to get back to studying, but I hope everyone has a fantastic week!