A Break!

Today marks Day 1 of my break. :) I have 6 days until my next class begins - DNA Forensics. I am very excited about that class. But I am also excited about this break - I need to go to the eye doctor and the dentist at some point this week. I want to read. I want to take long hot baths. I want to study for the MCAT, clean out my car and my backpack, and celebrate this sweet sweet break.

Yesterday I found out that I scored in the 79th percentile nationally on the American Chemical Society Organic Chemistry standardized exam. Honestly I thought I had done better than that. I don't know why Organic is so difficult for me. Inorganic was SO much easier for me. But excited to be DONE with organic. . . except for MCAT studying.

Took my calculus final yesterday and feeling really good about it. Hoping to pull out an A in calculus. I will have a B in Organic, but an A in Immunology, A in Cell Bio, and an A in Cell and Genetics Lab. I am feeling pretty darn good at the end of this semester!!

I received the book This Won't Hurt a Bit by Michelle Au yesterday. I preordered it from Amazon.com. I am really looking forward to reading this book this week! :)

My head hurts.

I had a cell biology test today, and I have another one Thursday. I also have an immunology exam Friday. Ugh. Immunology is a very boring subject to study. Painful.

I checked on my fat head minnow cells today and we are not confluent yet. Professor advised to check again Friday. So I have 2 days to sleep in and go to my regularly scheduled classes! YAY! :) I got out a little bit early today and had my nails done and then came home to do my chemistry pre-lab, my calculus homework, and study for immuno. What an exciting life I have. :P

Feeling good about myself today, though. My grades this semester have been better than last semester. I have lost 21 lbs and 9 inches off my waist. An old friend came by today to drop off Girl Scout cookies and was going on and on about how skinny I am getting and how great my skin looks. All good stuff. Now if I could just ace this immuno test Friday I would be a VERY happy camper!

Super Bowl 2011

We had friends over for the Super Bowl. The food was excellent. The people were fun. The studying. . . didn't happen. My friend is in my organic chemistry class. We have a test in there Wednesday morning. We REALLY both needed to be studying. Before they came I had time to do my calculus homework, but I really feel like I took an evening "off". It was depressing hitting the button to set my alarm for the morning. Busy busy day tomorrow. Organic, calculus, resistance training, organic lab, and cell bio lab, then a review session for the organic test (which I WON'T miss!!)

Ugh. Makes me tired just thinking about it. And makes me so thankful that I have such amazing friends at school to talk to and keep the day light. They give me something to look forward to!

Semester Off to a Good Start.

I am horrifyingly aware that I am taking the MCAT in 7 months. . . . Eek!

This semester is off to a good start. Haven't had any tests yet but I have 2 this week, so I have been studying a lot today, and there will be more studying tomorrow.

I was offered an amazing  research role yesterday. One of my friends suggested that I do this. Anyway, each student involved in the research will get their own virus (I GET MY OWN VIRUS!!) and we do experiments on said virus using expensive equipment at our school as well as million dollar equipment at the med school *that we are not allowed to touch, seeing as how we are measly PRE-med students and all*. At the end of the semester we will write a paper and our professor will publish our work as a single-author work, as well as compile all of our work and try to get it published in a major publication, with our names on it.  I am SO excited!

So this semester I am taking Organic Chem 2 with lab, Immunology, cell biology with lab, and calculus. So far I am hanging in there but I am pretty sure as we get into this semester this is going to get hard. In immuno we have a test every other week. Getting pretty stressed about this class - it is pretty tough. It is offered to both grad students and undergrads but it seems like the majority of the students in the class are grad students and it is being taught at their level. I definitely feel like I have catching up to do.

Amazing Experience Job-Shadowing

This week I had a fall break at my school. I spent it job-shadowing a pediatric ENT. It was an amazing experience. I saw a ton of surgery - I saw two different kinds of ear tubes, a tonsillectomy/adenoidectomy, lymph node removal, bronchoscopies. . . .just so much stuff. It was amazing. It wasn't just seeing the surgical procedures that reinforced my desire to be a doctor, but seeing the doctor's interaction with his patients, and the confident way that he carried himself, and the way all of the different patients and their families respected him. I was so impressed with this doctor. He was very helpful and encouraging to me, and even got me in to see an adult sinus surgery and introduced me (by NAME!!) and said that I was an "excellent MC student". . . words cannot even describe.

Anyway, now I have a renewed passion for my studies. I have a renewed desire for a career in medicine. I went to Borders today to study for my Organic Chemistry test Monday; I got there at 10:30 this morning and left at 5:30 this evening. Insanity. I see my goals so much more clearly now.

Wednesday I had to participate in a Writing Proficiency Exam for school. Mississippi College requires that all of its students pass this particular test to guarantee that their graduates have some writing skills. Anyway, the test was through ACT, and it took about 2 hours. The multiple choice part was very easy, but the essay part was interesting. There were 2 essays and we had 20 minutes apiece to complete these. The first one I tried to write a thesis and brainstorm some ideas before I started writing, but the 5 minute warning came and I hadn't finished my thoughts. I scrambled to finish my last paragraph and BARELY finished in time. So for the second essay I decided to scrap the idea of brainstorming and just write. I was able to finish this one but barely. I felt that the essay section was harder than the multiple choice by far. I am just glad that is over, and I am pretty sure I passed.

Pre-Med Students - Like or Dislike?

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/04/top-5-reasons-t/

According to this article in wired.com, the Medical School application process causes pre-med students to act in a way that they dislike.

I will admit, the Adderall thing - I have been tempted. I have not gone that route, because I know that I would like it. A lot.

The point about pre-med students trying to get that A by any means necessary, and choosing classes because the professors are "easy", yes, I can see that. Although I will admit that I took inorganic chemistry 1 with a tough professor, and worked HARD for my A, but I felt like that class really helped me learn. I try to keep in mind that all of these subjects WILL come back to haunt me on the MCAT so I should try to learn them well so that it will be easy to recall them when I need to.

I thought this was an interesting article. I have definitely seen the things they speak of. :) I may have even been guilty of these sins from time to time. I DO believe that I try to learn because of my curiosity. I am VERY naturally curious.

Two Years In, Two Years to Go!

This has been an amazing journey for me. I am not a typical pre-med student, I am almost 30 years old, I have been a stay-at-home Mom for the last 10 years and devoted all of my adult life to being a wife and mom.

Last year, as the date my youngest child would start pre-school approached, I began thinking about what I wanted to do with myself. My husband has always said that eventually he wanted me to get a job - preferably when all the children were in school. I have worked for a small church preschool Mother's Morning Out program for the last 6 years, and have always been home when my children needed me. I have gone to every field trip, every school party, every event.

And then: my baby was almost 4 and I was thinking about what I wanted. And this dream kept surfacing, this dream of being a doctor. I wanted to do something wonderful with my life. I wanted to make a difference in the world. I wanted to do something that would make my children and husband proud. So in January 2009 I registered for online classes through a community college to work towards my prerequisites, and I have never looked back!

My first four classes were Advanced Comp 2, Public Speaking, World History 1, and Computer Concepts. I received As in everything except Public Speaking, where I got a B. I began to feel anxious about my GPA and my ability to really do this. That summer session I took Intermediate Algebra, World History 2, and American Literature 1. Again all As except for a B- in American Lit the minimum grade for an A is a 95 . . . and i just missed it. Fall of 2010 I entered a real classroom for the first time in 11 years. I was scared to death - I felt sure I would be the oldest student in every classroom, that if I told people I was pre-med they would laugh at me. I entered these classrooms and discovered that not only was I not the only "older" student, I was also not the only pre-med student at this small community college.

Fall of 2009 I took Biology 1 and lab, Chemistry 1 and lab, World Literature 2 and College Algebra. I found taking classes within a classroom setting - for the first time in a long time - to be much easier than the online courses. I received all As in those classes, and felt a surge in my confidence.

I was invited to join an honor society called Phi Theta Kappa - and was inducted during the fall semester of 2009. I applied to a local college that has a very high acceptance rate into Med school - Mississippi College. I still had doubts about getting accepted, this constant feeling of not being good enough. But finally I received my acceptance letter and also my scholarship letter! I am receiving $4,500 worth of scholarships - the maximum allowed for students who are not living on campus. I will be starting school there Fall 2010.

Spring 2010 I took another 4 classes - Chem 2 and Lab, Bio 2 and Lab, statistics, and art appreciation. All As again. :) I now have a 3.868 GPA.

This summer I am again taking online classes through my community college - Old Testament, New Testament, sociology, and Medical Terminology. I am excited about taking online classes again - because I will be home with my three girls for the summer, and not putting them in child care.

My plan - to take a full course load at Mississippi college in the fall and spring, as well as next summer (child care for my girlies - boo!) and then take the MCAT next summer. I want to finish my bachelors at MC in 2 years - that is my goal and my plan. I am so excited and want to share my journey with others who may be thinking about becoming the doctors of the future!