Summer semester begins tomorrow and as my Adult 1 course is posted and gradually fleshed out online, I am having an overwhelming urge to print, highlight, organize, and all-around prepare myself for the semester. I only wish this drive would last past the first two weeks of each semester. I'm one of those sick people who get excitement upon entering office supply stores... pens, notebooks, dividers, planners, and sticky notes all hold a strange fascination to me and the beginning of the semester brings this fetish to a high point. The disappointing thing is, unlike my classmate Erica (ha, sounds like we're back in grade school) who, with boundless energy, color codes and tabs every reference page offered her, my organizing enthusiasm has a very specific inverse relationship with how long I've been in each course and by the end of the semester all I have piled in front of me is a loose stack of papers with no color or markings anywhere on them. Each semester I vow to change that and so far my vows have not come to fruition. But regardless, I try and try again!
So here I am entering my first semester of grad school with clinicals. Everything from this point on is officially downhill until graduation at the end of next summer. Four semesters down, four to go. I am excited to start my clinical experiences because that is where I really learn what it is to be an ARNP and begin my career but I am also insanely nervous because despite feeling prepared on some levels, I feel extremely ill-prepared in others. My pharmacology class was a joke. Everything I know I learned in my bachelor's level course or on my own on the floor. I went back over my pharm powerpoints the other day to see if it was me, my lack of dedication to a class that required so little in submission when another class was demanding all of my attention. But upon opening those slides I discovered that no, I was not the one who failed that class, it was the professor who failed me by only 'teaching' the bare minimum and not educating us on why an NP would prescribe one drug over another. And thats incredibly disappointing as pharm should be one of the most informative and challenging courses of this program. I am hoping clinicals, along with a decent amount of self-study on my own, will give me the real-life application I'll need in my future practice.
But there is life outside of school, a fact I sometimes have to remind myself of. I am home in Tallahassee for the first time in 5 months and here for Mother's Day for the first time in a number of years. Its been good to have this refresher with family prior to returning to the real world. Sleeping in, home cooked meals, old canopy roads and late night talks with my mom can do wonders for the soul. Plus we had a rope climbing/ziplining adventure you'll hear about in my next 30 Before 30 post!
Also, my amazingly talented boyfriend recently premiered as Brick in Tampa Repertory Theatre's production of Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. So far the show has received rave reviews from critics and audiences alike. You can read Creative Loafing's review of the show here. The cast is talented and the setting very intimate, definitely a show that will have you mulling over the conclusion long after you leave.
And now I am off to enjoy the rest of Mother's Day with the fam before returning to the real world of Tampa tomorrow. I hope everyone enjoys a relaxing day of celebrating their family today!
Love,
KayCee
