OJ the PA

When I learned that I got into PA school and would need to move to campus for the summer, I knew I needed my short-term living situation to accomplish a few things: I needed parking, I needed to be able to bring my dog Milo with me, it needed to be affordable, and I really didn't want to live with any roommates.  When a studio apartment sublet meeting all my needs showed up in an online listing, I knew I needed to jump on it. Since she had other interested people coming that weekend, I hopped in the car after work and drove the hour and a half to the apartment so I could see it and snag it for myself!  Since I was living in a 3-bedroom house, I was a little nervous about moving into a studio! I joked that it was going to be minimalist living for the summer. So now that I've been here for almost 12 weeks, what's my assessment?  I've actually really liked it! The small space is cozy. I love the high ceilings and hardwood floors, I can clean it in no time...

I OFFICIALLY PASSED ANATOMY! After spending countless hours in the lab and the library, I have thrown out my greasy scrubs and have conquered one of the most challenging things I've ever done. It was a strange and unique experience, and I am forever grateful to the man who donated his body to my learning experience. What a gift to be able to learn in that way. With anatomy over, I have just three weeks left in the semester. As my summer comes to a close, I'm thinking ahead to what the fall is going to bring. And I'm not going to lie, even though people say anatomy is the hardest, I'm worried about what's to come. Here's the thing. I'm part of a unique distance education program with my PA school. What that means is I'm spending 12 weeks on campus with all the students, tackling gross anatomy, H&P and other courses. But when summer comes to a close, I'm headed back home to complete my didactic portion almost entirely online. While the tradi...

One of the things I heard again and again during orientation, interview panels with current students, and on other PA blogs was this: the way you study may need to change. It's not that I didn't believe them. Rather, I thought my study habits must have been at least pretty good to have gotten me this far... right? I'm two weeks away from the end of Gross Anatomy, and some aspects of my study habits have definitely evolved since PA school started. Here's what I've learned so far! Trust that you know what works for you (at least to start) I remember vividly sitting in a recent undergrad A&P class. On my desk, I had my spiral notebook and a pen. Literally every other student around me was typing rapidly on their laptops. Wow, did I feel old! I've felt like things "stick in my brain" better when they're written by hand. Research shows that I might actually be on to something with that thought; this NPR article says you're forced to...

Guess what?! I am officially halfway through my first summer semester of PA school! It’s just crazy to me, because it both feels like it has flown by and it feels like I’ve been here for 6 months, not 6 weeks. But this means 6 more weeks (plus one day) of really hard work. I’ve heard that this next gross anatomy exam is the worst of the bunch, and it’s messing with my head a little bit. Cranial nerves are hard, ya’ll! So once I’m done here, I’m headed off to the library for the rest of the day. One of the things I’ve been thinking a lot about is my mental sanity. Studying this much information this quickly has a way of turning you into a caffeine-fueled stress-monster. In the past, I may have taken a night (or, honestly, a full day) off to just relax and binge-watch Netflix, there just isn’t time for that anymore. So I’ve been trying to working in other small self-care tactics into my day that will help me relax and re-focus without losing time. Each day, I have to take a bus home ...

My program started in May of this year, so I packed up my belongings and moved into a teeny tiny studio in a new city! In just three shorts months, we're getting through a number of courses and so much new information.  During orientation, they said learning like this is like drinking from a fire hose. Man, they were not kidding!  Now, one thing to mention is that I am actually a distance education student. So that means I am a full-time student on campus this summer, but then I'll move back home and complete my didactic education part-time over four semesters instead of two. This means I'll still be able to work part-time (yay, money!) while completing my education. So, my fall routine is probably going to look a lot different than my summer routine.  I wanted to set up some really good habits for studying, so one of the things I immediately changed about my daily routine was getting up early. And anyone who knows me will tell you that I'm definitely more of a...

When I started looking into PA school, I quickly realized that there were numerous pre-requisite classes that I was going to need to take. And, oh-so-conveniently, what I needed for one school may be entirely different than what I needed for another school. It looked like it was going to take some time (at least a year, probably) for me to take the courses I needed to apply.  I knew a handful of schools I wanted to apply to (since my goal was to stay local, if possible, to be close to my family and boyfriend at the time), so I made a chart of the schools with all their requirements for coursework, if I needed the GRE, etc.  And that’s when I realized, oh shoot, here’s a school I can apply to right now because I’ve met all but one of the requirements -- taking the GRE. I could apply and, if I got in, start a whole year before I had originally anticipated! In this whirlwind of excitement, I decided to take the GRE in just eight days and see what happened. Why just ...

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 ce...