Do What You Can

So far, I've been failing at my new goals. While I stayed on top of my biochemistry and anatomy lectures, I've fallen miserably behind in physiology. Anatomy lab has been making me feel claustrophobic because there are only a few good bodies for the structures we're trying to locate, and everyone seems to take all the good spots before I show up. My room WAS clean....and then the weekend hit. 

However, I am still trying. I sat down with some friends today and cranked out some physiology lectures. We all relaxed during lunch, and then got through three lab sessions in about two hours. I plan on doing some power cleaning when I get back home today. 

Once again, my biggest, biggest weakness is getting a little far behind, or just missing a goal, and then giving up completely. Or saying "That's too much to get through, I'll just skip it." If I can at least watch one missed lecture a day, or spend 20 minutes in the lab by myself, or re-read one page of biochemistry, or clean one corner of my room, that's something. 

*deep breath*

Start.

Quote of the Day

Exams and Organizing My Life

I passed all of my exams.
I PASSED ALL OF MY EXAMS.

I had a minor freakout where I thought I missed passing biochemistry by one question, but the professors accepted two different answers for one of the problems I originally got wrong, so I passed exactly. Not really where I want to be in the long run (since I had been getting 89% and 95% on the practice exams), but  at least now I have a decent springboard to go off of. I also exactly passed my anatomy lecture exam, but the lab exam is weighted double and I ROCKED the lab practical. Since I aced (that's right, ACED) my physiology exam, this puts me in a fairly decent place.

However, surviving my first round has also shoved my weaknesses front and forward. I've never been very good at time management. I am a horrible procrastinator. I also tend to give up - if my calendar says I'm supposed to study for four hours, and I spend the first hour taking a much needed nap or just talking with  my roommates, I have an unfortunate tendency to give up the entire study session.

So, these are my goals for the next round of exams.

1) Never get more than a day behind with lecture videos. I never got too far behind with them for the first round, but, knowing me, this could potentially be a problem in the future. This gives me a little bit of flexibility in case a professor is slow to the point of annoyance or I just really need to sleep in, but puts a little more responsibility on my end of things.

2) Prelab the NIGHT before, not the day of. This hasn't been a problem with histology, since we have LON-CAPA questions due long before lab, but I tend to put anatomy off until the lunch right before lab, and my pre-lab quiz scores show.

3) For biochem, rewrite everything. I tend to memorize things a lot better when I rewrite them, and since this section is all about glycolysis, memorization is key.

4) Keep my life better organized. Confession: I've never been a neat person. I probably never will be. But there are some things I can do to make my life easier. I've been doing VERY well with laundry and dishes, because I thought out a personal system that is both easy and efficient. I need to do the same for my desk. My desk is currently buried under non-school items, so when I go to study at home I normally end up in my bed. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, since I naturally migrate from one spot to the other to keep both blood and brain juice flowing, but when I sit in bed all day because my desk isn't an option, my productivity dwindles.

There will be probably be new goals after the 2nd round of exams (eating healthier and not driving to class because I want to sleep 10 more minutes come to mind), but I think these are the biggies that will decrease my overall stress levels and make medical school life much more enjoyable.

And really, why am I doing all of this if it's not enjoyable?! :)

Post Exam Reflections

Just had my first real exam of medical school in Physiology (my first tests in Anatomy and Biochemistry were more like quizzes). I think I did pretty good, so I'm celebrating by sitting outside with an iced chai latte, listening to morning traffic.

I think I'm still a little bit more of a country girl at heart, but I really do love living in this city. Grand Rapids always has something going on, but never feels overwhelming. The medical campus feels like home. It wakes up slowly - on all of my bike rides, I never have trouble finding a quiet street. And I don't think I'll ever get tired of the view from any of the Secchia Center windows.

Solace

I'm beginning to feel the roller coaster effect of medical school. I'll be flying high and feeling amazing one minute, and then drowning in an existential crisis the next. Okay, maybe not that dramatic, but my overall mood has been all over the place the last few days. 

However, the one place I feel really great? Anatomy lab. In class, it's easy to feel overwhelmed. Biochemistry has almost made me cry, again. Anatomy class is very scattered and fast paced, and physiology is confusingly arranged. However, in Anatomy lab, I feel like I actually know what I'm doing. I remember information from both undergrad and that morning's class, and can participate in a highly functional dialogue between my classmates. When I have questions, I know enough to still sound smart. When others have questions, I'm usually able to answer them. 

Another solace? My new tea kettle. I can't wait for fall weather to get here, because you can be sure there will be days I'll live-stream classes at home so I can sit in my PJ's and enjoy the coziness. 

Word of the Day: Sticktoitiveness

(It should be noted that I'm wearing surgical gloves as I type this...teehee!)

Today's word of the day is brought to you by Dr. Basson, our guest lecturer this morning for the surgical interest group. He was describing how we could best prepare ourselves to match in a surgical residency, that we needed a lot of gumption and stick-to-it-iveness. Also honors surgical grades, a decent USMLE score, AOA membership, and letters of recommendation from clinicians who have actually worked with us.

A few of my classmates thought he was being rather pessimistic, but I thought it was a healthy, realistic approach. The first step to getting the residency you want is getting the interview, and he said that one one really cares if you're a wonderful person at that point. They want to know if you have the guns to stick it through. They want to know if you can handle a rigorous course load and come out somewhat on top. They want to know if you can be a leader among your peers and work well enough with real doctors that they also think you can handle it. It was also nice to hear this so early in the year, as it will be a constant reminder of why I'm doing what I do every day. I need to do well in biochemistry so I can do well on the USMLE so I can get the residency I want so I can be the type of doctor I want to be, surgical or otherwise.

Tomorrow is my first anatomy lab. I'm pretty geeked. We had a tour of it yesterday, and it reminded me a lot of the Body Worlds exhibits I've been to, except you get to touch them.

Back to studying!

When did this happen?!

Apparently I'm an adult now. While I did not go to bed on time, I woke up EARLY, packed a healthy and nutritious lunch, got to class EARLY, and have my assignments already done for the week. Thank goodness for my magic calendar!!!!

....I'm going to go right out and say this is the calm before the storm.

But really, things are going well so far. Ironically, I enjoy our biochemistry professor the most, even though it's typically been one of my most dreaded subjects. Maybe third time's the charm? (Or maybe having a professor who actually enjoys TEACHING instead of just doing his own research makes the difference...who would have thunk?)