Day 16: Trying to keep my head up2 min read

[What I wish was] Today’s inane image of the day:

I’d much rather be happily peaking from behind a palm tree on Hollywood Blvd…

[What actually is] Today’s inane image of the day:

My hands are tired of writing about the different movements at synovial joints…WHY CAN WE MOVE IN SO MANY DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS?! [Oh yeah, that’s one of the great features of being human…]

I’m definitely having one of those kinds of evenings — oh you know the kind: I’m tired, slightly disheartened and really in need of a motivator. The glam and glitz of starting medical school has worn off and the magnitude of material that needs to be crammed into my head is growing exponentially. I fell behind last week, and now I feel like I am two weeks behind [even though it’s only Tuesday!].

It’s a good thing we had interviewees on-campus today. They really brightened my day with their swanky suits and smiling faces. Plus, each time we ran into a group of them, I was reminded of my own interview experience and how much I longed to be on the other side — well, here I am on the other side and I kind of wish I believe all that advice I was given about rushing into medical school. Not to say that I felt rushed into it [I was ready for this years ago…], but once again, I am so glad I took that trip out West and have happy photos to reminisce over now.

Here is the part where I begin to realize one of the cons of our curriculum — no, I do not regret my decision, nor do I feel like I was misled by the administration. Let me preface this with the fact that I am still happy to be at OUWB and would not give up my awesome classmates for anything. Honestly, we could get through anything together. But this being said, I am absolutely exhausted every single day of the week and cannot see myself lasting more than a couple months before feeling excessively [and unnecessarily] burnt out. I’m happy [and saddened] to know that I’m not alone, but I definitely feel like something needs to change soon or things are going to get ugly.

This being said, I’m brainstorming suggestions for how we could keep the same amount of material, but shorten the in-class time necessary to cover it. I am all about active-learning and being on-campus… but I also do believe in decompression time and enough free time so that what we are actively-learning in lecture can actually be ingrained in our minds. I think it’s time to collect my thoughts and present it to the administration — like I said in my KevinMD.com post, they have been extremely receptive and responsive to our suggestions, so I don’t think my time and effort will be in vain.

I’ll keep you posted.

Back to the notecards…