Done and Yet Just Beginning

This is it. I'm now completely finished with my classes and I have to say that I am satisfied with the results. This program has certainly given me the confidence that I needed to attend medical school. I am positive that I will be able to handle the workload of medical school and thrive in a high pressure environment. However this program has also done much to humble me. I completed another 2 shifts at habitat for humanity and I have to say that it was another hard experience. The sun was beating down on us and the sweat was pouring. This time it was different because we were building a house but they had not yet assigned a person to live in it. In addition, I did another shift at KIPP. The first time I did a shift there I was somewhat discouraged because of work that we were doing. This was different and me and a fellow student spent the entire time organizing the library. This felt good and knowing that we were making it easier for the students and the teachers to find what they needed was a great satisfaction. While we were there, a child began to have a temper tantrum. He started to scream and was carried into a side room. It may have started as a temper tantrum but it quickly developed into a panicked episode. Before long he screamed "they are trying to kill me" which reminded me of my time at a children's mental hospital and I suspect the child was having a PTSD flashback. Working after that was difficult and while we were doing things with our hands, our minds were with the child, scared for his life at school. Experiences like these are hard to hear but it shows that these children really do need our help and we were the only people who were willing to help put up the infrastructure while they tended to the children need.


I did 23 hours this month. and a total of 31.5 hours.

The final stretch!

With the final month fast approaching, this month brought a torrent of testings, big changes, and celebrations. I managed to successfully finished the nbme subject exam for pharmacology. I found that everyone seemed to have their own strategy for studying and I was no different. I used a deja review and first aid book to wonderful success. I breezed through the subject exam and only a few problems unrelated to Pharmacology's required some extra thought. With that out of the way, I was able to enjoy my friend Stephanie coming to visit the Friday after the exam. I revisited the insectavorium and aquarium which was very interesting. Immediately afterwards was the cell control exam which had some confusing questions! Unfortunately with all this studying I haven't had the time to get any volunteering. This semester has indeed been much more busy than the first and maintaining my two weekend a month pattern of volunteering like my first semester is unfortunately a thing of the past. This next month is wide open and I intend to get a lot of hours to fill my time and l hopefully learn some new skills at habitat. I also intend to spending a lot of time in the laboratory and hopefully finding a laboratory to work in over the summer. With only one test in front of me and a wide open schedule, it will be nice to fill it with volunteering and observations and really make the most of the end of this program

Mardi Gras Coming and Going

With the end of February comes the end of Mardi Gras and another month of this program. Despite the city wide celebrations and my friend Jonathan coming to visit, I was able to get one shift of Habitat for Humanity in. It was a very cold experience and I did my best to push through it. I was surprised at how cold New Orleans can get and I went inside after lunch to try and escape the cold. I did a lot of painting this time and while I found it a little tedious at first, when I remembered that there were people out in New Orleans that didn't have homes and had to suffer the cold all the time. This gave me a little encouragement to focus on the work and quit complaining. While I only did get 8 hours of volunteering in, there was plenty of other excitement. During one of the parades, I witnessed a shooting where two people passed away. It was a harsh reminder of gang violence and how crime and murder still occur even during near city wide celebrations and merry making. A few of the other students witnessed it as well and I tried my best to comfort them as they were having a harder time with seeing something so traumatic. I hope that they are okay and that they will talk to someone if they are dwelling on it as I take mental health extremely seriously and would not be able to forgive myself if they were struggling and I wasn't trying to help them.


Time volunteering 8 hrs 30 mins

Back into the Swing of Things

I am glad to be back! I had a wonderful time in both Spokane and Seattle but it was lacking in mental stimulation. I was able to catch up with several friends as well. When I got back, we were hit full force with a ton of classes and it was hard work to keep up. I had planned to do habitat last weekend but I got sick last minute and slept most of Saturday. Luckily I was going in an unofficial capacity and hadn't formally signed up. I later heard that 10 students who had signed up ended up canceling. The two students who went worked extremely hard and made up for the lack of labor. It was unfortunately because it made our pharmacology program look bad and flaky. Going into February, I have two tests and then spring break which I will be in New Orleans for. Hopefully, I will be able to make up for this month of inactivity during break because the rate of class seems to be more consistent than last semester.