What have I been doing exactly? Well that's a very good question. Two words: medical school. It's basically consumed my life, or most of it (two weeks ago I took a weekend trip to Ireland, see some photos on my Instagram!) I was reminded by two of my classmates to post more outfit posts, so ask and you shall receive... soon :)
Being in medical school has changed my life. Big shocker, I know. But it's so true! In the past few years, I had become very frustrated with what my life was turning into, and not knowing where it was going put a lot of undue stress on me, mentally and emotionally. My family would keep asking me if I had gotten into medical school yet, and my little cousin was starting to apply to schools himself, so I knew I had to do something. So far, best decision I've ever made.
There haven't been too many times that I can say that phrase and not look back on it with regret. Joining the rescue squad was also one of those decisions. After a year of being pre-med and feeling like I had learned nothing about medicine during that time, I impulsively decided to fill out an application form for one of the local stations in my neighborhood. That may have been my first "best decision ever." I have learned so much about the medical system, the emergency system, and about society in general that I don't know why anyone doesn't decide to volunteer at their local fire department (or volunteer in general!). But, that's another story.... The reason why it's been one of the best thing I've ever done is that it's helped me grow into the individual that I am today, and has given me the experience to succeed in medical school. So far, I've aced my first semester, and I'm currently keeping up with the material of second semester because of the prior knowledge I've gained as a EMT/paramedic. I have no idea how my other classmates are doing this right now and I admire them greatly for it!
Medical school is tough. There is so much information being thrown at you each day and you have to be able to interpret the information and keep it somewhere in your mind palace for the rest of your life. One of my professors in grad school used to say: "Medical school is like throwing mud at the wall. You gotta keep throwing that mud until it sticks. Just keep throwing that mud!" Basically, mud referred to the amount of knowledge we were being given during class, and the wall was our brain. The biggest issue is finding the time to do all of this mud throwing! My study partner made notecards last term for histology and would fall asleep at night and wake up the next morning with notecards all over her bed (I fell asleep watching an episode on netflix to clear my head, by the way!). One of the things that keeps me going though, is the future.
Following Fran and Laura (among the many other medical bloggers out there!) shows me what I get to look forward to. That constant reminder that in a little under two years, I'm going to be out on the wards and seeing patients, working and learning alongside other health care providers... those that have come before me... pushes me to sit at the library for 12+ hours and work my butt off!
Don't worry though, I'm making sure to enjoy life as well. Like I said, I traveled to Ireland two weeks ago, and I've taken up rockclimbing again this semester! It is addicting! But no worries, I'll be back to writing on here real soon.
What have you been up to this past month?
So excited to see this post and know you haven't left the blogging world! :)
ReplyDeleteI would love to hear more about your EMT experience and how you got involved...I am looking into different jobs in medicine where I could get experience and save some cash for med school but with a short training time (medical assistant, CNA, EMT, etc.).
Keep it up...you've got this, girl! I can't imagine how hard retaining all the information must be but I so admire you for doing it!