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.

Christmas Break

The end of the first semester has arrived and after completing my tests I started to think about everything that had happened over the semester. I was faced with a a lot of complicated life choices as I applied to medical schools and spent a huge sum of money only to get rejection emails. It was a blow to my self esteem, but as the semester progressed I became more and more competent in the pharmacology and my grades improved. The work didn't seem so overwhelming and I met people who I hope to know for the rest of my life through school and service. I noticed that I would feel like something in my life was lacking when I didn't complete as much service as I wanted to. I look forward to next semester and giving more hours than I did this semester.

September: 16 hours
October: 8 hours
November: 8 hours
December: 3 hours
Total: 35 hours

Thanksgiving celebrations

Another month down and another 8 hours of service completed. I was trying to get a second shift in before the end of the month but unfortunately I wasn't able too. Luckily I was able to get a shift in on Thursday, November 20th for habitat. This shift was a little different and I was unsure of how I felt about the work I had done. Me and several other classmates (Nick and Chad) were working on a house that had already been erected however some of the siding needed repair. However, much of the wood was rotted and there were more than a few hornet and wasp nests. Our work didn't involve replacing the rotten wood but rather patching over it which felt as though it was an inadequate solution. Nonetheless, Chad, Nick, and I spent the day battling wasps and patching over the rotten wood. There was significantly less guidance on this project than the last which had its perks initially but towards the end, much of the work that had been done needed to be redone. Some things that I disliked this time was the fact that the project manager was chain smoking and given that I have recently (<1 year) quit, I found I was grumpier than usual. Hopefully, I learn how to focus on my work and complete my project despite distractions such as that in the future.

In other news, school has been going extremely well and the final stretch is approaching (one more test!). I can finally start to breath easy although I can't help but remember that when I first talked to Dr. Clarkson, he said that the second semester was just as busy as the first. I have to keep that in mind going in to a 3 week break and a final stretch for this program. I also have a hydrogen sulfide project that I was supposed to be working on but have not been able to sit down and do. I expect that I will have to complete it next semester and I am unsure of how Dr. Kadowitz will feel about that. Happy holidays until next time.

Graham Unis

Hours: 8

Slow month for service

This month was slow for service and I only managed to get one habitat day in technically (although I am signed up for the 1st of November and aim to make it up). I have really enjoyed my time volunteering and my last shift was without the class. I met quite a few very unique people including a whole host of marines. Unfortunately it started POURING rain and we had to pack up a little early. This time we were doing something a little different and putting up the walls of the house so it was 8 hours of hammer which gave me my share of blisters on both hands.
I have also started to do research for one of my professors. Right now I am only doing a review article on the effects of hydrogen sulfide as a neuromodulator but hopefully I can expand this into an experiment eventually since I am starting to form some ideas. The research articles that I once struggled to understand are now easy to understand thanks to this program and the frequency that we read articles.
Lately, the workload has slowed down and I feel like I need to focus my efforts elsewhere. I plan on adding more volunteer work at the hospital due to a lack of a car becoming problematic for getting to the places I need, or finding another extracurricular that I can do. Perhaps more research could be done or I could focus more on the MCAT prep that I may take in January before the changes are made.

Hours: 8