winter, spring, summer, or fall...

These past few days have been a complete whirlwind of all my future responsibilities. Fortunately, I've been able to keep on top of most everything as best I can tell. Studying continues albeit at a slightly less frightening pace as previous days. The qBank seems to be less daunting every day and the results I get have been fairly consistent - in a good way. I feel prepared and yet a part of me remains absolutely mortified that I should be torturing myself with endless hours of studying. Well, whatever the case, I think the big concerns will be over after this weekend. With COMLEX-CE and ERAS out of the way, I can spend the hours I usually devote to joy and happiness to studying for the USMLE-CK. Well, not so much. But at least it will seem like a lot less pressure with only one big fire to put out.

Even with the amount of work to be done these past weeks, I'm fortunate to have the support and love of my friends and family (hi, mom and dad). I sent out my personal statement for ERAS this past Monday to a bunch of people and have gotten such great feedback and revisions from everyone. I am sure that with all that help, it will progress towards "masterpiece status." In addition, when studying becomes too taxing or overwhelming, I have a more complete complement of friends here to share time. It has been a real sanity saver to have everyone here. Another such case is Ben, Rose, and I went out to the middle of nowhere on Monday night to watch the lunar eclipse. It was awesome to see and I'm glad I got to experience it with such good company. Here is a picture captured as the moon became fully eclipsed. Anyway, hopefully, these next 48 hours will go as quickly as the past ten days and I will emerge refreshed and ready to carry on!

still alive...

Just dropping a line to let everyone know I am still alive. Just mostly studying for boards and finishing up my ERAS application. Ok. Really, I'm just letting my parents know I'm alive... and studying!

doing the time warp again

So apologies on the lack of recent posts. As you can see, that last post was about one month in the making. I sat down after I got back from Peoria and just didn't seem to have the energy to finish it. Unfortunately, it doesn't truly reflect a lot of the developments from that month, but as it was already reaching an epic length, I figured it best to cut it short and move on.

It is surprising that an entire month has already lapsed. Time seems to move faster day. It could be because these weeks promise to be the busiest and most stressful of the entire academic year. I recently finished my MICU rotation at the VA Medical Center. It was a great rotation and even better since the lectures and morning rounds provided the motivation to start studying for my rapidly approaching board exams. The work days went fairly quickly, but I definitely am glad to be done with the rotation. It wasn't so much the fact that the rotation was long, boring, or "bad" in any way but rather the fact that I hadn't be privy to a formal vacation or day off since winter vacation. I look back and think it might have been wise to have taken the week off between third- and fourth-year that most of my friends enjoyed. Even so, here I am now, enjoying my two-week "vacation."

Well, "vacation" may be stretching it. I'm taking one of my vacation weeks to start prepping for my first board exam (COMLEX-2) on August 31st. It isn't so much the work that I am happy to be free from rather the driving. I can wake up a bit later and move into the kitchen, my new study area. If that gets to be boring, I can move down the street to the coffee shop - which is where I happen to be at this exact moment. It is reminiscent of those last weeks of seventh quarter where I basically rolled out of bed and moved to the treehouse to study for Step 1.

Anyway, COMLEX-2 will be on the 31st. Then, our residency applications will be released for submission on September 1st. This includes updated CVs, personal statements, etc. So, that needs to be in progress and finished within the next few days. Then, I will take my USMLE-CK on September 21st. After that, there will be one last exam standing between myself and graduation, the COMLEX-PE scheduled for November 12th.

So that is kind of the big issues that are on the horizon. Other than that, the last four weeks have been great just to get back into the habit of living in Arizona. I haven't been getting out to the gym or running so much as before I left. This is mainly because the first few weeks were filled with a strange fog of fatigue and I was sleeping a lot... kind of like Rob. Other than that, I've been going out to play volleyball a bit more frequently as Jen and Dan found a place close to their house that is free and open on Tuesdays. So, between Sunday, Tuesday, and now Saturdays, I've been trying to keep somewhat active. Maybe as it cools down, I'll get back out running, but these next two weeks will probably see a continuing slothfulness. And that's pretty much it for now... except for the fact that Jen and Dan have ten baby tortoises in their backyard.