So blessed at the end of the year

As is customary for this time of the year (and because I finally have the time to reflect on everything that has happened of late), I have been thinking about all of the things in my life that I have been so blessed with during the past year:

• I am exactly 1/2 of a PA, with only one more semester left in the classroom!  I started feeling fairly early in the semester what past 2nd year PA students from our program have talked about before: the 2nd year slump.  Getting up, even for only 3 days a week, felt like such a huge chore, and every morning involved lots of coffee, blasting campy 80s music, and having a dance party/mental confidence booster in order to drag myself to yet another class.  However, clinic was something I looked forward to every week!  It was the one place where I could get away from the drama of being in class, and really hold my own.  I was blessed with 2 amazing rotations this semester, both of which I was treated with incredible independence and respect by my preceptors (especially during my second rotation in family practice).  I learned so much this semester in clinic, and gained huge confidence in my knowledge and abilities to accurately assess and treat my patients.  I even detected a heart murmur in an adult patient that had no history of a murmur in the past, which eventually led to a diagnosis of an aortic aneurysm.  I had so many moments like this where I have been able to synthesize everything I have learned in the classroom, and during past rotations, and I can't wait to start full time rotations in June.
• I have the love and support of my amazing family
• My sister came home!  After being gone for almost 4 months in London, she finally came home.  She even surprised us all by coming home 4 days earlier than expected, so we got to spend all week with her before Christmas.  
• I got to spend wonderful time with my mom and sister in the company of our amazing congregation for Christmas eve Mass, and I prayed the rosary using the beautiful Italian-made rosary that my sister brought back from St. Paul's cathedral for me!

I have been blessed by so many other things this year, including a phenomenal scholarship from my program, the opportunity to meet amazing people and have life-changing experiences in clinic and in my work experiences, and just happy to be surrounded by friends and family who love me.  I only hope that 2012 ends up being as wonderful as the tail-end of 2011 has been!  (That is, of course, if the world doesn't end :-)) 

Last-ditch effort to procrastinate

I should probably be sitting here, spending the next 1.5 hours studying for my last final exam of the semester, but I'd rather write, because there's nothing quite like supreme procrastination.

Yet again, I feel like my writing has lapsed in favor of studying, and there's far too much to write about in one post.  I'm so happy to finally be at the end of a tough semester.  The material wasn't too difficult, or maybe I've just become accustomed to constantly being so busy, but regardless, it was a long semester, especially with my sister not state-side.  She comes home next Friday, and I'm so excited I cannot contain myself.

On the school front, I have found myself caring less and less about studying, and more and more about application of the material, which I think is pretty normal, given the fact that I'm a mere semester away from my full-time clinical experiences.  I had 2 phenomenal rotations this fall, and love that I'm finally at a point where I can go in and see a patient, take their history and do a physical, and come out pretty sure (or at least thinking down the right path) of what is most likely going on.  I really loved my 2nd go-round in pediatric endocrinology (and am planning on a 3rd time during one of my elective rotations next year), and I also ended up really loving my family practice rotation.  I'm so looking forward to only 15 more weeks of sitting in a classroom (EVER) and finally doing my rotations.  I'm so excited, especially for my prospective elective rotations, and I'm hoping I'll be able to figure out what I want to spend my life doing.  I'm still torn between pediatric endocrinology and a surgical sub-specialty, and I have both lined up (tentatively) as elective prospects during 3rd year.

Well, now that my exam is a mere 1 hour and 2 minutes away, I shall get back to last-minute cramming....so close to freedom, I can taste it!