Let me introduce myself!

Hello!

I am Olivia, and I am currently a first-year PA student. I’ve taken a bit of a winding road to get here, and I’ll be the first to admit that I have self-diagnosed “Career ADD” which means becoming a physician assistant will actually be my third career. Whoa.

After high school, I thought I wanted to major in business. Had excelled throughout most of my education but quickly learned that economics and finances were not my thing. So, I started considering other careers. I liked writing but didn’t want to be a starving artist, so I ended up transferring schools and ultimately getting a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism & Mass Communication.

I worked for about three or four years at advertising agencies doing writing work in creative, public relations, social media… and I was good at it. But I didn’t like it. It didn’t leave me feeling fulfilled. So after much thought (and a big breakup) I convinced myself to go back to school for dietetics. I completed a three-year certificate and landed a job out of one of my clinical rotations. My job as a registered dietitian (RD) at an acute care hospital was amazing.

So amazing, though, that it left me wanting more. I felt like I was able to influence only one piece of the puzzle in my role as an RD, and I was hungry for more.

To be entirely honest, I don’t think I had a clue what a physician assistant was before that job. But when I saw advanced practice providers (APPs) in the hospital, I thought they had a really cool role -- lots of patient interaction, the ability to participate in or do awesome procedures, lots of autonomy. That all looked great! We can talk later about why I chose to be a PA over an NP at a later time, but the important thing was that I realized this was the next step I wanted to take.

So here I am. Sitting in my teeny tiny studio (where I should be studying!), right at the cusp of this amazing new adventure.

With this blog, I am hoping for a few things:

Give myself a much needed creative outlet. The writer inside me is still alive and well!
Share my story of being a PA-S, getting into school, my applications and interviews. While my story may not be applicable to everyone, I hope you’ll learn something from it.
Write about challenges that lots of people deal with: time management, finances and budget, and other general lifestyle topics.

In essence, while everyone may not love or get a lot out of every blog post (heck, I may end up with no readers at all!), I hope there’s a little something here for everyone.

Be well,
Olivia

Comments

Distance Year 1: My daily routine

Over the summer, I wrote about my daily routine . Remember, at that time I was living in a tiny studio apartment and doing school full-time on campus. As expected, the transition to life as a part-time student, part-time dietitian has been challenging. I'll say this upfront. I knew PA school, even in a part-time program, was going to be difficult. But this has, well, exceeded those expectations. When people tell you that you'll be studying basically all the time, they weren't kidding. But I'll let my daily routine help you see that! Work Day Schedule I work three days a week (generally W-F), and I have quickly realized that I can't slack off on these days. If I do, I definitely get behind! 5:15 - Alarm goes off. My small dog Milo somehow takes up the whole bed but I try to sneak out of bed without disturbing him too much. He's lazy so he'll sleep most of the morning. 5:30-6:30 - Watch a lecture while sipping on my coffee and eating a simple...

PA School Interviews: 35 Practice Questions and Tips for Zoom

Getting ready for PA school interviews? Congratulations! And while interview season may look a little different this year (Zoom calls, anyone?), the importance of being properly prepared is still the same! I used to work in advertising and public relations, and sometimes I would prepare experts to talk to the media. What was the most important thing for the experts to do? Know your key messages. There's going to be topics you know will likely be addressed in an interview, so be prepared to speak to those specific things. Same goes for PA school interviews. Yes, I've heard of programs asking some off-the-wall questions that you probably wouldn't see coming, but generally speaking there's a variety of likely topics that will come up. My advice? Think through how you want to answer those questions ahead of time. For me, this looked like an 11-page Google doc with sample questions I prepared answers for. It forced me to think through scenarios I'd want to share and my ...

Resiliency: PA School During a Pandemic

I saw this article on Facebook and it really hit home for me: "Your 'Surge Capacity' is Depleted -- It's Why You Feel Awful." I strongly encourage you to read the whole article yourself, but a few things stuck out to me that I feel compelled to share. First, what's surge capacity? It's your adaptive abilities for dealing with acute stress. The problem with a pandemic is that it isn't really acute in the same way that a massive tornado or other disaster might be. We're in this for the long haul, and if you're like me, those adaptive abilities have worn thin. For me, this has looked like feelings of helplessness and exhaustion. I've spent a lot more time on my couch watching bad reality TV than I'd like to admit. But with school starting in up in less than a week, that really isn't going to fly. So how does a student (in an intensive graduate program) keep moving forward? "Both-And" Thinking One of my favorite lessons fro...

OJ the PA

Search This Blog