Today’s inane image of the day:
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| I grabbed a study room early this morning to be greeted by the writing on the wall [yes, the whole wall is a whiteboard!] — oh… I’m so behind… |
First and foremost, I just learned a new phrase: social sharing. What, you ask, does that mean and how does it concern me? Well… if you have a couple of minutes [which, you should since you’re reading my blog], check out the [quick, and educational, I promise] game, SPENT.
I’ll save my analysis of this game for after you have all checked it out. I can say this much though — it really excites me to see how social media [or in this case, social sharing] can educate and help people.
The past couple of days have been somewhat of a whirlwind of activity. I wish I could say that I am in a great mood, but like many of my classmates, I’m tired [and not due to lack of sleep!] and somewhat cranky. This being said, I think it was pretty obvious to administration that there was tension within the class because the issues at hand were addressed today over lunch.
I won’t get into many more details, but what’s important to me is the immediate response to the situation. Nothing horrible happened… but the reality of medical school is that we will work until we think we cannot work anymore, and then be expected to surpass that. How physicians get through this whole training process and not feel complete and utter despair is beyond me… but I guess I’ll understand sooner or later.
Regardless, I’m happy to see that things aren’t stagnant around here.
This all being said… I always feel perpetually unprepared. I have an infinite number of things to complete and a finite amount of time to complete them in. Not to mention the fact that with each day, another load of material gets added. Although I am reminded left and right that I got here for a reason, it’s hard to see it after feeling sick from Anatomy lab [the fumes are really getting to me] then returning home only to complete a tiny fraction of what I wanted to [or, nothing at all]. I try to remind myself through my favorite blogs that there are happy physicians out there that were once in my position… but it all seems so far from now.
As Dean Folberg said at our White Coat Ceremony, 5-6 weeks in we’d start seeing blemishes on our white coat and it’s hard to feel that natural high from the day of the ceremony. Where did it go? Why did it leave? What can I do to bring it back?
EDIT
It’ll all be okay because I have this Gram Positive Cocci concept map:
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| I’m armed and ready for tomorrow’s case study with this concept map made with the fabulous, Vue [click to download it for free!]. |
Amanda,
As I said before, I read your blog every single day. It’s nice to hear how first year is going at a different institution. Luckily I can watch all of my morning lectures online. I crawl out of bed 5 minutes before they start at 8am, make coffee and learn from my bedroom. I usually head to school at noon for labs or clinical skills after lunch. Then I stay at school and study until after dinner. Sometimes I stay as late as 11. There is no way I would be able to make it through this kind of schedule if I had mandatory morning lectures. I seriously feel your pain.
Please please keep on going and keep your head up! I love your blog and your attitude. I know I’ve never met you, but I sort of feel like I know you. You can do it. Deep breaths. I will keep you in my prayers.
Christine
MSU-CHM c/o 2015
@Christine: Thank you so much for that comment — I truly appreciate the thought. =)
It’s interesting how our schedules almost sound completely flipped — I cannot bare the thought of spending my whole evening at school [nothing beats sweats, no need to have someone watch your stuff and cleanliness…!].
I hope that someday we will cross paths [consider doing a rotation at Beaumont!].
Whenever I read your blog, I realize how much more you are learning first year compared to what we did. Your school sounds really great.
@Shara: I believe that our schools have completely different approaches to learning — so while it may seem that we are “learning more,” in reality, we have more of a traditional curriculum while you have more of a do-it-yourself one. At least, that’s my impression of it.
At some point we should compare notes about it and perhaps co-write something…
I’ve always wondered what the best way to get all this stuff in my head is. There are so many pros and cons to each method.
@Shara: I’d love to do that! Definitely after I get a taste of M2 though — while I have my thoughts about how the integrated curriculum is working well [aside from some of it feeling disorganized and chaotic…], I’m hoping that things will be a lot more organized and make more sense when we actually start learning the organ systems.
Keep that running list of pros and cons!