Skip to main content

Intentions for 2020: Free time, friends and finances

Wow, it has been a whirlwind the last few weeks. Between work (and pulling some extra hours here and there), school and life, I feel like I blinked and November was over.

Quick updates? I kicked butt on my endocrine module exams, did pretty well on my ENT exam, and now need to survive one more Big 3 exam (dermatology, yikes) and a couple smaller exams before I can finally take a much-needed break. Almost there!!



The end of the year is fast approaching, and I'm a big fan of reflecting on how the previous year went. And wow, it has been a whirlwind year! If I think about how I thought 2019 would go in January, it definitely looks a lot different here in December. Yes, I started the year knowing I was going to PA school, but I ended up taking a spot at a different school and starting three months earlier. I left my dietitian job at a hospital I loved (I miss my dietitian, nurse, NP and doctors friends so much!). I moved into a tiny studio apartment on "fraternity row" for three months and actually loved small living. I helped to dissect an entire cadaver. I learned a ton over the summer and made some amazing friends. Moved back home, started a brand new job that has challenged me and made me grow. I've transitioned into life as a distance education student. I'm almost two semesters of didactic down with three to go!

So here I am at the end of 2019 just in awe of how much I've learned and grown and changed. I am tired, but I am happy.

Now what about 2020? I've decided to set a few intentions for the year:
  • Start using my planner more consistently to keep myself organized
  • Stop spending needlessly
  • Continue to prioritize school first and do the best I can
  • Continue to work on finding balance and making time to take care of myself
PA school has been an amazing ride so far. It has definitely challenged me in ways I didn't expect; I knew I was going to be busy but, my gosh, this is a whole new level of busy. When I think about how much I'm studying it almost makes me laugh. But I've made some time for me and for friends, so I'm proud that I've found at least some balance. It's a work in progress!

Well, I hope you all had a very successful 2019! Cheers to a wonderful 2020.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

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...

Three tips for a successful interview

With interview season upon us, I thought I would share my best tips for confidently answering those hard-hitting questions.  Tip #1: Create a messaging document.  A what-now? A messaging document. I used to work in communications and public relations, so preparing people for interviews with news outlets was actually a part of my job. Essentially, you come up with a set of questions you expect the interviewer may ask you, and write up how you'd like to respond.  You can find questions galore online (from The PA Life , The PA Platform , and AASPA , just to name a few). Choose a nice variety, and start writing out your answers -- even to the ones that seem easy! For example, "tell me about yourself" might seem really straightforward, but you want to say a few key things about yourself without yammering on forever.  I took this really seriously. I chose 48 questions and wrote out answers for each one; my messaging document ended up being over 11 pages lo...