Back in Session!

The Best Part of My Winter Vacation

Happy New Year! It feels good to be back on the blog! I had made plans to write all these amazing posts during the break, but I was completely drained from school, and I knew if I opened my laptop that I would be tempted to look at notes or other school-related things. The Monday before Christmas, we had a major exam, in addition to mandatory lab the day before Christmas Eve, so I was just ready to be done. I ended up making the drive back to Louisiana on Christmas Eve, and it was so nice spending time with my family without having to worry about studying. The last time I saw them was during the White Coat ceremony, but since I had an upcoming exam, it really cut into the time that I could spend with them. The best part was having conversations that had nothing to do with medicine! I wanted a free week to relax, so I only spent a few days with my family before making the drive back to Georgia. It was the best decision ever! I literally lied in bed (mostly) all day, every day and binged on Netflix, sleep, and junk food. My daughter received a ton of gifts and basically didn’t want to be bothered either, so she left me alone to be completely lazy (plus, I was sick so she really didn’t want to be around me, LOL). It was wonderful!!!! Someone recently asked if most medical students study during their holiday breaks, and I think I can say with almost absolute certainty, that the answer for most students is absolutely not! Medical school burns people out and deprives them in ways that are hard to understand unless you’re going through it, so when we get breaks we tend to take and enjoy them. I know a lot of my classmates took trips to spend time with their families, and others just went on vacation. There were a few that attempted to study, but I would say it was less than a handful. My opinion is that the work will always be there, but the free time doesn’t come as easily, so medical students should not be afraid to live a little and relax every now and then. It truly does make a world of difference.

On a present note, today was our first day back to class after a very much needed winter break, and I was super ready to get back in action. Well, at least until my alarm rang this morning :-/ It was definitely a struggle getting back into the swing of things after almost two weeks of absolute freedom, and since my daughter doesn’t start school until tomorrow, I really debated taking an extra free day and staying at home this morning. Not waking her up and getting her back on schedule would have made tomorrow morning worse, so I dropped her off at daycare and headed to class. From there, it was back to a long day filled with lectures. Since we are on a trimester schedule and we started second term well before the break, I also get the added bonus of having to study for a midterm exam this Wednesday, along with two more exams and a practical next week. The good news is these exams will be in my OMM and primary care skills courses, and I tend to do well on these. Plus, since I took my primary care practical exam before the break, I will not have any class this Thursday since they split this exam into two groups (yay!). So now I just have to make it through to Thursday, and then I think I might reward myself with a movie or something else that I can’t really do with my daughter around. This week is looking better already :-)

Oh, and before I forget, I am thinking about doing weekly posts specifically for the pre-medical students. I know I have already answered a ton of questions in my “Applying to Medical School” section, but I am always getting new questions that I did not even think about. I already have a post that I know I absolutely have to put up this week about courses before medical school, but if there is anything specific that you want to see covered, just leave a comment or shoot me an e-mail. As always, I hope you all have a fantastic week!