And that's a wrap: Year one is complete

At approximately 9:00am this morning, I shut my laptop. My last final exam, complete. And perhaps the most anticlimactic end to a school year.

No celebration with classmates and friends to mark the end of an important year. I know a lot of students who are at an even more pivotal point in their journey -- graduation, or the completion of didactic -- are feeling this even more. I'm sorry that there won't be white coat ceremonies or traditional graduations or clinking glasses or hugs.

And while I'm sad I can't celebrate this accomplishment how I would like, I think it's worth a peek back at the last 353 days of this journey! Here's some of the things I've learned.

Minimalist living is surprisingly comforting. At least until the cockroaches come...
Bonds are built over the "tanks" -- bonds you can't break!
You know you're busy when grocery shopping counts as your time to relax.
Good friends and family will be there for you, even after you blow them off for the (seemingly) millionth time.
It's important to have someone you can vent to. Maybe a professional.
You do have to cut yourself off from coffee at some point during the day.
Popcorn and Twizzlers does not count as dinner.
It's truly amazing the amount of information our brains can retain.
Moms are the best because they will help you move long into your 30s!
Love is your grandparents making a three hour trip so your grandpa can be your practice patient.
It's okay to cry. It's okay to ask for help. It's not okay to give up.
Failure is probably going to happen (screw you, dermatology pharmacology...). But it's not the end of the world.
You can't survive on coffee alone. Water. Definitely also drink water.
A pandemic can take away your coffee shop study dates. But it can't take away Facebook messenger video study sessions!

I know this is a quote about being a parent, but I also think it fits here: "The days are long, but the years are short." It's wild that I'm here, having survived an entire year of PA school. I know there's still a lot ahead of me, but it feels so great to be here right now.

Looking ahead to the future, I'm hoping to enjoy my summer break. I may need to re-learn what it's like to be a normal human being who isn't juggling PA school plus a job! I seriously don't know what I'm going to do with all this free time!

So, I'll enjoy summer as best I can. Two more semesters of didactic while I continue to work as a clinical dietitian. Then, clinical year! I'll be at the finish line in no time.

Thanks for reading,
Olivia

Comments

Three months: My life as a new PA-C

As I'm sure many new PA's can attest to, the end of PA school is a bit of a blur. One minute you're finishing up classes and studying for the PANCE and the next you're ... here? Three months into practice and wondering how it happened. Graduation was on May 13, 2022, and that was a really wonderful day. My parents came to support me, I enjoyed beers on the terrace with my friends, and I felt wonderful standing on the other side of three years of grad school. After a quick day of relaxation, I hit the ground running with my studying. I stuck with my plan for the most part, and felt equal parts "I can't possibly study any more!" and "But I'm not ready!" when exam day arrived. I happened to be at the very same testing center as a fellow student, so when we finished our exams, we headed over to the local mexican restaurant to enjoy tacos and well-deserved margaritas. Hilariously, our brains were so absolutely melted from testing that we could

Rotation #3: Internal Medicine (and pondering my future)

When I decided to go back to school to be a physician assistant, internal medicine is what I had in my mind. As a clinical dietitian, I had the chance to collaborate with APPs and loved the idea of being able to provide that kind of care to patients. One of the APPs who I had the chance to work with often while I was a dietitian became my preceptor for this rotation! It was very cool to be standing in the exact spot I had imagined back then. Back then, though, I did not appreciate just how challenging this job would be! I worked with a small private practice group that has privileges at various area hospitals, and my preceptor and I were based at one large metro-area hospital. The service was crazy busy the entire time I was there, and that was both good and bad. I got to see a ton of different diagnoses, a wide variety of patients, and was challenged to be relatively independent. But dang, it was hard to keep up most of the time. Honestly, I worked more and was more exhausted during

Rotation #2: General Surgery

Another one bites the dust! It's crazy to me that another rotation (and therefore all of my surgery experience) has come to an end. If I want to be one thing, it's totally honest. This rotation was challenging . I had a ton of fun during orthopedics -- I felt like a lot of providers and residents wanted to show off how great their subspecialties were. And they succeeded! But I didn't get pimped very much and I wasn't seeing patients independently. That all changed in a big way when I went to general surgery. Did I learn a lot because of this? Absolutely. Did I feel like an absolute pile of garbage most days because I felt like I couldn't do or answer a damn thing right? Yes. Did I talk to my classmates and get some reassurance that many rotations feel like this? Also yes. Thanks for making me feel less alone, guys. The days were long and the list of things to study was even longer. But here we are, one rotation down. We've survived, so far at least! One big t

OJ the PA

Search This Blog