Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Mental Marathon Training


Things are feeling a bit surreal right now. Today, I took my last mandatory exam here on AUC's St. Maarten Campus!!!!! TWENTY [intense, life altering, mentally challenging, grueling, stressful, nerve wracking, anxiety laden--yet all worth it] months of Basic Sciences are over! Done! Finito!


It feels like just yesterday I was saying goodbye to all things familiar in the US and now, it's time to go back.  It's definitely bittersweet!!!  I'll miss this place (more of that in a future post) but it's time to move on to the next stage...errrr...STEP.  I'll be heading back home to the US to study for STEP 1 of the US Medical Licensing Exam which I'll be taking at some point this summer...pray for me y'all! 

While I feel like my brain has definitely gotten a serious mental workout, there's SOOOOO much I still don't know.  Here we learn the fundamentals.  The theory of Medicine.  Kind of like my theory of knowing how to change a tire but never actually doing it...The real, hands on, memorable learning will take place in the hospital wards and I can't wait!  I'm definitely a nerd like that.  Hopefully when the hours are inhumane and a patient has puked (or done worse) on me or too close to me I'll still have this same enthusiastic attitude.  But let me not get ahead of myself.  There's that little, pesky STEP 1 testing business that's standing in my way of getting started.  

Until I get to the hospitals and clinics and start seeing real patients with real problems, where I can translate my book knowledge into practical skill and application hopefully no one asks me for much medical advice.  If you're not imminently dying--I can actually call 9-1-1 (9-1-2 here on the island in case you were wondering) and even potentially perform CPR on you, please go see your doctor.  I still have a long way to go!

But until I get there, I'm going to enjoy this small victory!!

I have a couple "TOP 10" posts in the coming days, so check back soon.  In the meantime I'll be on the island packing then sunbathing, living the life of a tourist, and squeezing in everything I couldn't do while trying to be a good student and trying to get mentally prepared for what lies ahead!

For those taking finals next week, in the words of Dr. N "Best of Luck"!!

Until next time...

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