Finals and Fleeing the Country!

“I” is the 10th most commonly used word in the English language according to the Oxford English Corpus. It sits behind staples like “in” (7th), “of” (4th), “be” (2nd), and “the” (#1); and it’s the first pronoun to appear on the list. What does this tell us? As an aggregate, English speakers are self-centered. If you extrapolate this data to other languages, I’m sure you’d see the same trend. All people love to talk about themselves and what’s happening in their own lives. The only thing people may enjoy more than talking about themselves is talking about themselves to people who are actively listening. While apathy and disinterest in people is awful (in my opinion), I think some degree of self-centered nature is, well, natural. What could you possibly know more about than what is going on in your own life? Plus, wouldn’t it be irresponsible to always put others first? I’m not sure what I’m arguing here, or that I’m even arguing anything. I’m just pointing out something that I find interesting. This is essentially what I do every time I blog anyway. I write about myself, what my life is like, what I’m doing/did, what I’m learning, adventures I take and friends I make. Only, I don’t write because I feel like my experiences are by any means more important than those of others. Rather, I write because I hope that someone will read it, connect with it, appreciate it in some way, and perhaps relate to me. I think I’m saying all this because every now and then part of me feels guilty for blogging. While talking about oneself seems to come naturally in casual conversation, documenting my life feels peculiar. I just hope I don’t come across  as pretentious as I feel sometimes. I blog so my family and friends at home can keep up with me, since I haven’t the time to keep up with them! That’s my primary aim, but I’ve also come to enjoy blogging. It’s a cool way of remembering all the things I did. Things happen so damn fast in PA school that it’s incredibly easy to forget what you did the day before, let alone the week before.

Which is an excellent segue into my next paragraph — Hmm… I had to scroll through my calendar to see what I did over the past 2 weeks… Haha. Here’s what I came with up with:

• 01/29 – Diagnostic Modalities Exam II and Physical Diagnosis Final Exam
• 01/31 – Pulmonology Exam II
• Don’t remember what the hell I did on the weekend which probably means I studied a lot
• 02/05 – Endocrinology Exam II

Now that I think about it, this past week wasn’t that terrible because we got out early almost everyday so that people could perform their physical diagnosis final exams (which require the professors to proctor). Getting out early doesn’t translate to being easy like it did in undergrad and high school though. The lectures for microbiology regarding upper and lower respiratory tract infections via bacterial, viral, and fungal agents (that all sound/present in an almost identical fashion), and the lectures in pharmacology regarding anti-hyperlipidemic drugs and anti-anginal drugs were more than enough to make us feel like it was a typical 8am-3pm weekday, so don’t you worry about our stress levels declining. Never that. Here it is, Saturday night at 10PM, and I just now finished reviewing all lectures from pharmacology and microbiology, just one time each! That’s right, two days before the pharm final and three days before the micro final, I have only read over each lecture but one time. It’s not for lack of trying though! It’s all about time, or lack thereof. It’s funny, before PA school, I said to myself, “As long as I study diligently, I will do great.” I was naive to think that it was going to be solely up to me to determine how well or poorly I did. I never accounted for the sheer volume of material that I would be required to learn and the extremely time-limited nature of the learning. I’m not limited by myself at all; I’m limited by the 4th dimension! I think that was the title of a blog that I wrote first term, “The 4th Dimension.” Hahah, hella corny.

Speaking of time though, seriously, Monday starts Finals week. Here’s the schedule:

• 02/10 – ECG Final
• 02/11 – Pharm Final
• 02/12 – Micro Final
• 02/13 – Medical Management of Vulnerable Populations Final

The ONLY good news is that I’ve managed to build up a few good buffers in ECG, pharm, and micro, so technically I can afford to slip up on the final exams and still pass the classes. Normally I wouldn’t factor that as good news because I don’t like thinking that way, but I’ll take it at this point because I don’t have enough time to review my notes like I want to for each class. If only I had one more day! Just one extra day! But, as I was saying about buffers and all that. I think at this level of education, and especially this line of work, it’s wrong to say “All I want to do is pass,” and mean it. What I mean is, a lot of us say it — I’ve said it — but I don’t think we mean it. It’s not safe to mean it. After all, the key to becoming a great clinician (or any professional for that matter) is knowing what the hell you’re doing. You can’t expect to be any good if your actual goal during the education process is to “just pass.” Hell, that’s not really much of a goal at all. It’s more of a compromise, and in this case, someone’s life may be compromised. The doctor I worked for before I left for PA school, Dr. John Ambrosino (no relation) is an amazing doctor. He’s a podiatrist, has been in practice for over 30 years, is incredibly smart, and I admire him greatly. Frequently he receives patients that have given up on their other doctor due to poor results with their treatment, and 99.8% of the time he ends up helping them, improving their condition in some way. Of those patients, some express their discontent with their old doctors and they badmouth them in the treatment rooms. Dr. A would always say, “You know what they call the guy who graduated at the bottom of his class from medical school, right?” The patient would reply, dumbfounded, “No, what?” Dr. A would give a comedic pause, and with a wry smirk on his face, he’d answer, “Doctor.” I don’t mean to be dramatic, but it’s absolutely true! Why do anything if you don’t intend to be the best at it?!

Staying true to my own words, and true to form, I’ve spent the vast majority of my time this weekend studying, but I wish I could watch the Olympics! I get so patriotic when the Olympics come ’round. Haha here’s a little known secret. I frequently get watery eyes when I hear the National Anthem. I’m so lucky and proud to be an American. America is by no means perfect, but there isn’t another nation that I would rather call my home. So yeah, winter Olympics. I will probably end up watching highlights on NBC.com or something to stay up to date.

I’ve officially need to start packing for New Zealand, as I leave in four days!!! Yesterday I received my rafting helmet in the mail and quickly stuck three GoPro mounts to it lol. Then I decided it would be wise to start practicing my paddling technique in the living room. Just warming up, ya know?

I know what you’re thinking, and no, I never had lessons.

Hahah but seriously, I made a list of the things I need to pack (paddle excluded). All i need to do is start compiling them. It shouldn’t be too difficult, but I want to begin the process early to reduce any chance that I forget something important. Like soap or deodorant, or whatever. Did I mention I leave in FOUR DAYS?!

That reminds me, the flight will be around 15 hours or so. As I don’t foresee myself sleeping for that long, I’ll need something to pass the time. Any suggestions? Any books or movies y’all recommend? Any input would be appreciated. Just comment!

When I get back, I’m definitely getting back into the gym on a regular basis. I haven’t been able to run or exercise as much as I’d like to over the past few weeks — really, ever since I returned from winter break life has been like an old, rickety rollercoaster stuck in a crazy downward spiral. The kind of spiral that forces you to tense up your core, neck muscles, and butt cheeks while you stare at a fixed point on the tracks ahead of you,  hoping that the next jolt won’t sever your head or send you flying from the chair. All the while you’re hoping and praying that the theme park has been diligent about the upkeep and maintenance of their rides, and that if they are up to the state-mandated standards, that the standards are appropriate and conservatively determined in order to provide the utmost safety of the park’s thrill enthusiast customers. But if you can just hold on tightly to the handrail of this old coaster without getting a splinter, and suffer the spiral until you reach the lull you see ahead of you on the tracks (i.e., our two week break), you will be survive. We will survive term two. Four more days. Four more days.

I don’t care if my memes are gimmicky. Speaking of memes, I made this one after watching the video of the Russian Police Choir sing “Get Lucky” at the Olympics. Here’s a video if you haven’t seen them singing. Lol, so awkward: Video Here

And my meme:

My next blog won’t be until I return from New Zealand, sometime after March 1st. My sister’s birthday is March 3rd, so somebody remind me to wish her a happy birthday. Oh, speaking of Jami… She got engaged about 2 weeks ago or so! I meant to blog about it last time but totally forgot. How exciting is that! I’m really happy for her and her (now fiance) Bryan. They’ve been together for longer than all of my relationships combined, so that’s pretty impressive. Goddamn, what that does that say about me? Well hold on, they’ve been together for over six years sooo that’s kind of a really long time haha. Regardless, they make a great couple and I’ll be happy to welcome Bryan (officially) to the family B-)

I’m not sure if it’s clear or not, but my blogs take me a couple days to write nowadays. This one was started on Friday, but I’m finishing it at ~12AM on Sunday. It takes a long time to construct this beast. Welp, if you read to this point, thank you! I hope it was long enough to help you procrastinate just the right amount of time 😉

Alrighty, that’s all for now. Until March! 🙂