Let me 'splain. No there is too much. Let me sum up.

Buttercup is marry Prince Humperdinck in little less than half a hour...
Oh wait.
That's a different story.

If you're not a Princess Bride fan, you now think I'm a doofus. If you are, you got a little giggle and that's about all you can hope for here.

So I'm Val, and I'm going to try to journal here about my little journey from Just Me to Dr. Me. I have a lot to catch up on, so here goes. I have always wanted to be a doctor. My parents can tell you, they've known it since I was little. I thought at first that I wanted to be a veterinarian, but that stems from a conversation I had with my grandfather when I was very little and he seemed to think that girls shouldn't be doctors and tried to convince me that veterinarian was second best. Sorry, Papa, girls can be doctors after all. Who knew?

I went through high school and even graduated early with the intention of getting it all done faster so I could be DONE. Haha. I was so sick of school when I graduated high school, and I decided to take some time off. During that time, I got married, had six kids, had a fun career as a labor doula and childbirth educator, and got stone cold bored about two years ago. My time off had turned into almost 20 years, and I woke up at 35 wondering where all the time went.

So I thought I'd get a technical degree in Diagnostic Medical Ultrasound (that's medical, right?) from the local tech school and all would be rosy. I flew through my freshman year, and was having a great time. The program was supposed to start in Spring of 2011, but due to switching from quarters to semesters, all of the "big programs" got pushed to the next Fall. I was finished with all of my prerequisites and looking at sitting on my duff for almost an entire year.

On November 3, 2010, I was sitting in the living room with my hubby watching an interview on television with the gentleman that was running for governor of Alabama. He said he was a doctor, and commented that he was involved with bringing a medical school to South Alabama Medical Center in Dothan, AL. Dothan is a little more than an hour from my house. My hubby got all excited and said, "You're going." This school hasn't even been built yet, and he says I'm going. Right. So every morning, my hubby gets up and gets ready for work, kisses me goodbye, and says, "Bye, Dr. Val." Sure, ok, hon, very funny. I kept getting emails from him with information about the school, and any news related to it. Somewhere along the line, I started believing that I could do it.

I applied to Columbus State University, and after a couple of months of paper shuffling, I got in. I started January 5, 2011 as a sophomore. My adviser says if I take Chemistry 2 and Physics 2 in the summer, I can start Fall 2011 as a junior. Um, wait. That is if I can pass Chemistry 1. I have been an A student through my freshman year, and on my first Chemistry test I made a big fat C. I've never made a C in my entire life. And my chemistry professor advises me very strongly that I do not want to take those two courses in the summer. That kinda makes me want to prove him wrong, but I'm not doing any stellar proving in chemistry currently. I guess that's a question I should pose to my adviser.

Anyway, I started this blog to try to keep up with the whole process of getting my Bio degree and applying to medical school. Hopefully it will be interesting. :)