long time, no see.

I know, I know… It’s been a long time…

Insert- ‘excuses’

1. Finals time/week. Busy bees we were! One final per day. I have to say, as brutal as it sounds to say “I had a final Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday!” It actually wasn’t so bad. You’re not going to believe what I’m about to say, but… it felt kind of like a breath of fresh air. And maybe that’s because literally, during finals week, we were out of that nursing building that we were pretty much confined (sorry for the harsh verb) to, all summer. I mean- I walked, I ran, I walked some more, I sat on some benches, and studied outside. Amazing. Being in class for one hour per day seemed like a piece of cake. Oh and by the way, just so we’re clear, the tests were not a “piece of cake”, being there for merely an hour was the cakey part 🙂

2. Summer break! Oh my sweet sweet three weeks of sweetness. I read books- recreationally. It was extremely exciting and relaxing to sit on the beach, toes in the sand, waves and breeze all around, text books… miles and miles and miles away.

3. Getting acclimated. We’ve just finished our second week of fall semester! Amazing! I am so excited for this semester! It just took me a teensy bit to “get back into the groove,” as they say.

For my fellow accelerated friends and myself, our schedule is:
OB (first seven weeks), Psych (second seven weeks), Pathophysiology, Pharmacology (all fourteen weeks)… and that’s it! Can you believe it?! Three classes at once!

Craziness, I know.  This semester, the idea of “free time” is a true reality. So for this semester we got some options:

Some people are working a tiny tiny bit at the school and such. Some girls are training for a half marathon. One girl I know of is training for a marathon in October. Our fabulous pathophysiology instructor, two other students and myself are signed up (and were wait listed!) for a team marathon. (I’ll let you know how that pans out!)

Some people are knitting, taking up recreational reading, studying a lot, or sleeping. All awesome ways to fill up the time!

Here comes the plug… Since I can’t knit or run a solo marathon, I’m taking extra classes along with a lot of other people. We have choices like Forensic Nursing- (big hit, I hear), Medical Spanish (another big hit), and Community Outreach (huge hit!). I’m taking Faith and Health- awesome class, look into it if you come! It’s a wonderful breath of fresh air, (and not in a “it’s finals week” type of way). Then there’s Birth Companions where we will be trained as doulas and will the amazing opportunity to work with women who are are in labor. I can’t wait to tell you all about it when we get some experience. I’m also auditing a class at the School of Public Health next door, Humanitarian Emergencies.

So I’m telling you all this so you understand that if you come to Hopkins, you too, will have the opportunity to take your core classes and more! The opportunities to pursue that which most interests you, is here for the having.

I’m off to bed! Hope to see some of you readers tomorrow at Perspective Student’s Day!

Rachel