Keeping up

I'm really not sure how students (or anyone, for that matter) kept up with their schedules before smartphones. I'm sure I could carry a calendar around and consult it every five minutes to see where I'm supposed to be next, but I have a hard enough time showing up in the right place at the right time when my phone sends me alerts. I feel like my schedule is so very tight right now. I'm not complaining, I love that I'm actively working towards my goals almost every minute of the day. But sometimes I feel really conflicted when a friend wants to have lunch, but I have a 12 pm class. I worry that at the end of this entire trip, I won't have any friends left and my family won't remember who I am. I guess I need to pull out my calendar and schedule some open time. HAHA!
Next week is fall break. What I imagine I will do during that week is sleep in, play video games, and knit. What will probably happen is I will be catching up on reading for classes and trying to tame the laundry monster. But it's OK, it's still a break, and I won't be burning up the road trying to make it to class on time. AND I won't have to pray for a parking place, either.
I've been working on Friday afternoons shadowing a local pediatrician for the last few months. She has taken on a couple of medical students and a medical assistant who needs hours to graduate, so I will have a few weeks off from that. I really love working in pediatrics -- kids are fun, and it's mostly a nice variety of cases that come in. The doctor that I work with is really nice, and she takes every opportunity to teach me. I still have to find a D.O. to shadow for my med school application, but I've gotten very comfortable here. I could definitely see a future in pediatrics.
Have I said long and loud enough how much I love my organic chemistry professor? I lost sleep over this class before it started, and now it's the one I look forward to the most. We had a lab mid-term yesterday, and guess who made a 100 on it? Yep, me. :) I have to do honors contracts for the honors program, which means that I sign up for an extra project in one of my regular classes to make it an honors level class. I approached Dr. Rugutt about doing a contract for organic chemistry, and he gave me a project! I just have to wait for the honors approval in order to proceed. We will be doing a project called Green Synthesis of a Novel Anti-Breast Cancer Chalcone. Chalcones are produced by citrus fruits, and they have anti-cancer properties. So I will be performing a lab sythesis and writing a paper on the results. I also have to present at Tower Day in the spring and submit my report to the undergraduate journal at CSU. So before I even finish my undergrad degree, I'll be published. :) Isn't that cool? It's totally win-win.
So things are moving along. The biggest lesson I've learned since I started this journey is to never avoid something unpleasant that is a part of getting you to your goal. I decided years ago that I did not want to be a doctor because I didn't want to deal with chemistry. I was afraid of a little science class! I'm sure there are much bigger obstacles, but chemistry was the big giant standing in my way, and I cowered for too many years. The other lesson I learned that is not quite as big is never take chemistry 2 in the summer, you're just setting yourself up for disaster.
I have to say even though my schedule is a tight fit, and there are some other things I don't quite have a handle on, I am as happy as I have ever been. I am working my behind off with studying and other school activities, but I feel like I am moving towards what I was put on this earth for, and it makes it all worth it.

Stuff

I never know what the title should be on some of these entries. I put "Stuff" up there, hoping I'll be inspired by something I write and then change the title. We'll see what happens
The first organic chemistry test was great, he gave us some very good study tips, and I made a...

Wait for it...

ONE FREAKING HUNDRED. Yep. I was VERY shocked. I hope that I can keep it up. An A in orgo would just make my life.
I have to give credit to my professor. He is very thorough and takes as much time as we need to understand a concept. He told us that he goes to church and prays on Sunday about what to put on the test. He really wants us to learn, not just pass.
I applied for a Global Ambassador position at the Center for International Education, and I got it! I will be attending various informational events for Study Abroad, and maybe even giving presentations to students interested in studying abroad. We have so many great opportunities for studying abroad. You can read about my Bahamas study abroad trip at this Andros Blog link. So now I get to spend this semester and spring semester telling people about all the upcoming trips! I've got my eye on a trip to Oxford next summer. Hopefully it will work out.
I've been shadowing a local pediatrician at her office on Friday afternoons for a couple of months now. I really think pediatrics is where I'm leaning. I know my background is women's health, but I am pretty sure I don't want to be an OB/GYN. I'm hoping to get some more shadowing experience from other specialties. But I'm pretty sure I'm going to stick with family practice or pediatrics. I also think it would be cool to work at an urgent care clinic. I think that has something to do with me being ADD.
Working with the pediatrician has been interesting. Sometimes it's disappointing seeing things from her side. I've taken my kids to the doctor, and I wonder now what the doctor must have thought when he left the room after a visit. Now I have a front-row seat. Not to mention, this is Alabama. I used to think it was a stereotype that Alabama is backwards and weird. But after one chick shows up barefoot and soaking wet with her kid in nothing but a diaper, I had to think again. There are some crazy people in my town, and that is just one example. I could go on, but there is HIPAA. I'm having a blast, though. I am learning a lot about pediatrics, and so far I like it.
I guess this is a bit of a long post, I'll try to post more often so it won't be such an immense post. Until next time!

I'm still slogging through!

From VeryDemotivational.com

 This is kinda true. I might add "Keeping a Blog Updated" as a fourth choice there, but maybe that can be under Social Life.

The weather yesterday was lovely, and I hope that it doesn't spike up to 90 degrees again before Fall settles in for good. The temperature was about 66, and it was so nice. Of course it was a little overcast and rainy, but it was totally worth it. I think I posted on my Facebook that if it continued to stay so hot I would shave my head. Thank God that I didn't have to follow up with that! I have a thousand sweaters in my closet just waiting for temps in the 50s.

Organic Chemistry is going alright, I think my professor is still taking it slowly for us. He gives us a lot of ideas about questions that might be on the MCAT, and I am very grateful for that. It seems he has cleared up a lot of gaps I had from Chem 1 and 2 in the first few weeks. Hopefully I'll understand this at some point. I like the professor a lot, he's very thorough.

I hate to throw all my other classes into a group together, but orgo is really the challenge this semester. The rest of them are going great, I'm able to understand what's going on there without a ton of effort so I can concentrate on passing orgo.

I had my first exam last night in Concepts of Fitness. It was simple enough, I just read the chapters and the study guide. I have a Bio 1215 exam on Thursday. So far in that class he's gone over stuff I learned in A&P 1 and 2. I'm sure it will get more challenging as it goes along. But by this time in Chem 1 and 2, I was pretty lost. :) The big orgo test is next Friday. I am giving it proper respect. I keep thinking I should get in a study group, but every group I've been involved in so far descends into chaos and silly youtube videos. I have a lot of ADD folks in my classes it seems.

So there's the first Fall update for the blog. I was going to write a whole post on the horrible Monday that was August 26, but I think I still need therapy on that one. Maybe next post.

You threw off my groove!

School starts back on Monday, and while that should fill me with dread, I am SOOOO looking forward to it! I love my family, and I love being home, but I will be really glad to get back down to the business of finishing my undergrad degree. Not to mention that when I'm home I feel the need to organize and clean and boss people around. My kids will probably be glad to send me back to school as well. I rented a bunch of my books this time around because I didn't have the money to get them on my iPad. I get my refund in a couple of weeks, but a lot of professors are real sticklers about you having your books on hand the first day. Seems they should release your money earlier if they are going to be like that. But I don't look forward to lugging around paper books when they could all be snug in my iPad.
I feel like being off for too long throws off my groove. I am afraid that the stuff I've learned starts leaking out of my ears if I don't shove more stuff in there quickly enough. Anyway, I'm off to take the kids to the movies!

Ah, well.

The final grades were posted today, and I got a C in Chemistry 2. It didn't affect my GPA too badly -- still a 3.9. I guess I had hoped that I would keep a 4.0 through the whole 4 years. I certainly didn't expect to get a C, but there it is. It's definitely not a habit I want to get into, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. So now to put it behind me and concentrate on success in fall semester.
School starts back August 15, it just doesn't seem like much of a break. But after fall semester, I will have almost a month off. I'm taking Organic Chemistry 1 (with lab), Research Methods in Biology, Principles of Biology, American Government, Concepts of Fitness, and two Honors classes: Culinary Arts and Historical Venues. The Fitness class is only half the term, and the two honors classes only meet four times each. So it's actually a pretty light semester for me. The American Government class is online, which will be nice.
I'm looking forward to getting started, I've been pretty useless since I've been off. I've had a nasty chest cold and I can't seem to get enough energy to accomplish anything useful. I've done some knitting and I've watched the whole first season and part of the second season of Doctor Who with my kids. It's been very relaxing. I'm sure my hubby would like it better if I'd accomplish something else. :) But hopefully next week I'll feel better and I can attack a few projects in the house.

Oops.

So I didn't do very well on that second chem test either. 71. Ew. I'm meeting with my professor tomorrow to get some advice. We only have 2 weeks left in class, so I'm worried that I can't turn this grade around before it's over. Gah, I hope he gives some extra credit or something. I am doing OK in the lab, I think. I've made 100s on all labs but one, and that was a 97.5. Hopefully I did OK on the exam in lab last week. We have another chem test this Friday, and then another one the following Thursday, and then that's the end. Praying that something clicks here soon.

Chemistry is another language

And I don't seem to be speaking it very well.  I'm going to class, taking notes, reading the chapters, working the examples, everything I can think of! I didn't do really well on the first test. We had our second test today and I'm hoping I did better. I keep thinking I'll look back on this and it will make sense. I really hope so, anyway. I still have more chemistry in my future.
In other news, I have experienced an example of the stereotypical pre-med student. She is in my chem2 class, and she can be a trial. She's rude to the teacher, she corrects him constantly, and she asks questions that she already knows the answers to. I'm not sure what she's trying to accomplish, but if it's getting on EVERYONE'S nerves, she can mark that goal off her list. Dude, she is not pleasant.
So here's me hoping that all this studying finally starts sticking and I get a good grade in chemistry this time around. I do have to prove to my adviser that I can juggle. ;)