A few weeks ago we had a friend take some shots of us around campus, mostly to commemorate graduating. We haven't taken any professional photos together since our wedding day, so I was looking forward to at least one nice picture together. I wanted to share, because Asif did an awesome job, and the pictures turned out great!
By the way, I'm probably one of the most awkward people to photograph. I get so uncomfortable when a camera is on me, even though I want a good outcome. The whole time I told Asif to tell me if I looked weird. "Where do I put my hands?" "Should I stand like this, is that ok?" Poor guy. I think just to (kindly) spite me, he included this gem in the proofs:
Just keepin' it real, in case any of you thought I'm some kind of experienced photogenic goddess.
Tomorrow and Wednesday are the two big days my classmates and I have been waiting for! We take Part 1 or our National Board exams. We're all looking forward to having this behind us. I'm sure there will be a feeling of relief as this is lifted from our shoulders Wednesday at 5pm! I'm also sure it will be quickly followed by a feeling of anxiety during the next 30+ days of waiting to hear if we actually passed it or not.
So, please remember us over the next two days and say a quick prayer for me (us). This test is a culmination of the past three years of our lives, and what we all have diligently been working so hard for. It is also a test of endurance since it is so long. 500 questions, 4 sessions of 3.5 hours. Pray for focus and motivation until the last question is answered!
In the meantime, I'll be doing some last minute studying, followed by an afternoon of relaxation and unwinding as I try to calm my nerves. :) And I'll be holding on to this promise: “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” -Lamentations 3:22-23
Cue the choir, and the angels, or whoever wants to sing a hallelujah praise...
1. We finished second year of optometry school!!! It was literally the most challenging school year of my life (as you have already heard). It was such a relief on Thursday to walk out of our last final exam for the year. Thankfully, Gussie gathered up our class to finally get a group photo of the class of 2016. And this group of girls I could not have made it through without. They keep me straight, in the right place at the right time, and answer all of my silly questions late at night before exams. They keep me laughing through the hard times and listen to all of my complaints. I am so thankful to have such wonderful friends!
2. To increase the nerd level of this post even further, I got an iPad this week for the single reason of taking notes for class and being able to upload notes from this school year for future quick reference. Many of my classmates use their iPads in class, and I came to realize how convenient and well designed this device is, and how much more organized it could help me to be. All of those binders of notes you see above can be on the iPad to scroll through and quickly search if needed. Plus I can access digital copies of my textbooks at my fingertips any time. Jesse says I've crossed to the dark side by owning an Apple product, but it already came in handy studying for finals, and I can tell it is a great investment for school!
(I just had to share this one. She's just too cute.)
3. This Wednesday our community group had a farewell cookout for one of our members. Our friend Ronda has been in search of a job for a couple of months, and finally received an answered prayer. However, God decided to move her to Eufaula, AL, and away from all of us. We were both excited for her and sad at the same time. I am so glad I got to know Ronda while she was here. She is a strong woman with a sweet spirit and is someone you can truly always count on. We will miss her dearly, but plan to visit her soon, so it was not a final farewell this week!
4. We had dinner with friends Hannah, Adam, Kelsey, and Addy on Thursday night after I finished my final exams. I had to get out of the house, so we had celebratory drinks and Mexican food at Little Donkey. Hannah and I are both in the medical-school related world, so finding time to catch up can be few and far between. We enjoyed our time with them and got to hear all about there wedding plans for this summer. I cannot wait!
5. I finished second year of optometry school! Did I say that already?... Well it deserves two spots on the list because it felt like quite the accomplishment. Plus, considering all I did was study for finals this week, nothing else interesting happened.
1. This week has been a little interesting. We spent Monday night huddled in Mike and Kelsey's downstairs apartment in case of tornadoes. Thankfully we did not have any damages in our neighborhood, and we were glad to have a safer place to stay.
(photo from original blog source, linked below)
2. I made this recipe this week, and it was pretty delicious. I'm not sure if anything with bacon can be bad, so give this recipe a try for a new pasta dish. I was a little leery of the egg sauce, but it didn't have a weird texture and just made everything nice and creamy (without an overload of heavy cream!). I did also roast grape tomatoes to toss in too, which I think added a nice flavor to the mix. The roasted cauliflower was awesome - I would do that again as a stand-alone side.
3. Yesterday our Clinical Evaluation instructors, who have been with us for both Fall and Spring semesters held a little end-of-the-year party to recognize a couple of outstanding students, and then hand out several funny awards based on things they had overheard or seen us do throughout the year. I will spare you the names of the awards, as they are all corny, optometry-nerdy awards. We have all said and done some crazy things as we've been learning new skills along the way. And it's also been fun (and funny) to see how each other's personalities come out in various situations - whether it's the first time you see the retina with a certain tool and are blown away by what you see and feel like a rockstar, or when you freak out because you are stressed and feel like you suck at every clinical thing you've ever done. We have a great class and it makes each day better knowing you have people going through this with you.
4. Today was the last day of class for spring semester! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! (Insert any other expression of unbelievable excitement here!) Finals are next week, so keep me in your prayers and thoughts. Jesse too, bless his heart, for putting up with me during such a stressful week.
5. Also today, Jesse took a placement test that sets him up for begging a Master's program in business. He took several business classes in undergrad, but not enough to major or minor in it. He has recently been interested in going back to get his MBA for a couple of reasons 1) it can't hurt to have an MBA on top of an engineering degree 2) it could help my practice one day to have someone that knows anything about business since we get little to no business education in optometry school 3) his current company will pay for it- so why not?! Since he didn't have all of the required classes to start the program, he could opt to take this placement test and if he passed, he didn't have to make up the courses, which would knock off a year of classes for him. Well, he pretty much aced the test today and is now just waiting for registration to open to sign up for classes! I am so proud of him! If all goes as planned he will finish the same year as I do. So from now until then we will be some of the most boring people you know. ;)
I titled this post before I started typing because it's the root of how I feel. Then I realized it's irony to my career choice and had to laugh a little. I wrote this post a few weeks ago in the midst of studying for midterms and preparing for a practical, when my classmates and I were stressed to the max. I've been hesitant about sharing, because it's revealing. But let's be real here for a little bit.
Optometry school has to be the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. You might think, it's just school. You just go, and study, and then your done...after a while. Nope. Not really. It's the biggest challenge I've ever faced. Why? Because I lose sight of so many things while I try to keep my head above water.
On days like today, while I'm writing this, I've literally been doing school related things from 8am until right now (10:45pm). I mean, I had lunch. And I did take the time to have dinner downstairs with our friends before Community Group. Which I arrived home just in time to throw some clothes in the laundry and walk downstairs to. Then I dipped out of the actual Bible study part of group to come back up to my desk and start my "homework."
Not everyday is like this. And there is plenty of my time I don't spend wisely. But school seems to engulf me- some weeks with crashing waves. And many times I have reached the point where I just go to bed and start to cry because so many things seem out of whack in my life:
- not enough time spent with my husband
- not enough time spent reading my Bible
- not enough time to volunteer at church
- not enough time spent with my friends
- lack of sleep in general
- I'm behind. I'm always behind.
- I could go on, and on
And to be quite honest, I've wondered if I could quit. Could I just call this off? Walk away and pretend it never happened. That I never got this far. And then I think of all the other things I could do with my time. (This usually involves cooking and baking, and all the things I've saved on Pinterest; heck, maybe even taking up embroidery! Oh the things I could do!) Then Jesse reminds me that I have to tough it out for this part, this short little part of my career, to reach my real goal. A goal I've been hunting down for so many years. (He always seems to also mention the growing amount of loans... I don't blame him.)
But then I snap out of it (for a while) and remind myself that he is right. And I try to remember that all of this is part of my purpose. My God-given drive and passion. Because if it wasn't God behind all of this, I would drop it and walk away. I love optometry and people, and want to love people through optometry. I've learned through this journey the past couple of years that for me, it is definitely not about selfish ambitions, a title before my name, or the money I may make one day (which, by the way, insurance policies are slowly washing down the drain). When I lose sight of this vision God has given me, I'm not trusting Him. I feel so alone in this because it feels like such a struggle, but really He has placed me here and knows my outcome. This is His plan for me, and this is how I can serve Him. If I could just remember that these long days and nights of studying are really worshiping and glorifying Him, maybe they would be more enjoyable.
Tim Timmons, a singer/songwriter that has been to our church in the past, sings beautiful reminders in this song. If you watch the video, you'll see that Tim's struggle is much greater than my own, but this song is an inspiration to me, and I keep it on repeat in my car for my morning drive.
"Remind my soul that Your in control. Praise to the Father, with every breath I take. In joy and sorry, all for Your Kingdom's sake. Be thou my vision. Be thou my hope restored. Now and forever, you are my great reward."
I'm not looking for sympathetic words or for you to feel bad that I get discouraged. I just wanted to point out that we lose sight of why we are doing what we are doing sometimes- the purpose behind it, and if it's the right thing or not. We get bogged down in what feels like a burden sometimes, but really it's just the path we are to follow, which is not always easy.
Spring break is next week and I'm planning to make the most of it, relaxing and renewing my mind for the end of this semester!
Helloooooo everyone! I realize I've been a little MIA lately. Please excuse the lack of posts; it's been a little crazy around here, with many 10pm nights at school (see #3). Let's catch up though with this week's high five!
1. Saturday we had a wonderful visit from Jesse's parents. They came up on Friday and took us to dinner at the Fish Market downtown. We then gave them the Birmingham experience of going to the top of Vulcan, which was beautiful at night; and of course a trip to Steel City Pops! Saturday morning, Jesse took them to his work where the pond was open for fishing (an annual occurrence). You had to keep what you caught, so they returned at lunch time with several fish, which was just enough to feed the fours of us. It was SO good to have them here with us and to share some of our city with them. :)
2. On Sunday, after church, we stopped by Railroad Park for lunch. They were having "Trucks on the Track," where all the different local Birmingham food trucks set up for the day, and 10% of the proceeds went back to Railroad Park. For you non-Birminghammers - Railroad Park is a new-ish park in the downtown area. It's a beautiful place to picnic or go for a walk, with a beautiful backdrop of the city. It's part of the hope to revive certain parts of downtown Birmingham, and is located just across from the Baron's stadium (Region's Field). This was actually our first time at the Park (go figure... food was involved in bringing us in). The whole idea of food trucks really drew in a lot of people, as the lines were pretty long. Jesse and I split up to get our grub. He was on the hunt for fish tacos, and found his way into line for Cantina, while I waited for a fresh off the grill grilled-cheese from Melt. His cuban and fish tacos were amazing, as was his side of grilled corn with cilantro butter and crumbled fresco cheese. My grilled cheese was no ordinary grilled cheese - it took two hefty Texas toast slices to hold together the brilliant combination of pulled pork, BBQ sauce, and homemade mac and cheese!
3. I survived my first practical in my clinical evaluations course! And by that I mean, I don't know if I passed, but I didn't die of a panic attack in the middle of it while my professor watched my every move, and graded me by checking off every little possible thing I could do (or not do, or forgot to do). Whew! We were all at max stress this week, because all of our little over-achieving minds probably thought deep down somewhere that this first clinical checkoff would secretly pronounce if we can indeed be optometrists one day. But, we were all stressed for nothing. (Well maybe a little something.) I tried to give myself a little pep talk before going in. It went a little something like this, "You just gotta go in there and show 'em you can do this. Because you can. You can take a case history. You can determine their visual acuities. You can check their pupil sizes and reactivities to light. You can do confrontation fields. You can check blood pressure. So don't stress... just go do it!" So I did. You get timed on everything, meaning you have a certain number of minutes to perform each skill, which was the hardest part. Somehow I finished them all in time; definitely with a few flubs here and there. But, I finished it and can now move on.... to the next exam. It's nearly midterm time, which is absurd, because it seems like we just started this semester!
4. Last night, after I returned home from my practicals day at school, Jesse and I declared it movie night, and invited Mike and Kelsey up to watch. Movies + popcorn + friends = the best way to unwind after a trying day!
5. A couple of weeks ago I sat for third year students to practice evaluating contact lenses. Mostly I did this because they were giving American Express gift cards out to the participants. I had had my eye on a few makeup items I wouldn't normally chunk out the dough over, but I decided if I participated and got the giftcard, it would technically be like getting this makeup for free! So, that's what happened. I finally got around to going to Ulta today. They were having 40% off several drugstore makeup brands, so I combined that with coupons to stock up on the foundation I like. (Score!) Plus my splurge (think with me: free!) beautiful Naked palette! I love all of the neutral colors it has inside, and I am SO excited to put it to use!
Happy Friday everyone! It's been a doozey of a week, with late nights and lots of morning coffee to keep me going. I'm about ready to crash. Let's see if I can muster a high five:
1. I studied hard last Friday and Saturday so that I could join Jesse and Mike on their trip to Atlanta. We made it in time for the sushi buffet at our favorite place - Ru San's. Right in the nick of time to pile our plates high with deliciousness before they took the buffet down. :) We then went to The Fish Store (appropriately named), which is a salt water fish and coral warehouse. It was full of beautiful corals and unique fish (also a lot of Nemos)! We then made a quick run through Ikea, which is always fun! I found a neat bamboo cutting board and a cute purple and pink spatula.
2. I got to see my friend Hannah this week! We studied together... separately really, but I still got to see her, and that makes me happy!
3. I can now thoroughly evaluate your pupils and determine if you have abnormalities, like an afferent pupillary defect, aniocoria Horner's syndrome, or Adie's pupil!
4. I think it was last week that I worked on changing a very minor detail of the blog. If you look up on your tab to any webpage there is a little image next to the site's name. These are called favicons. The typical Blogger favicon is their trademark B in an orange box. I've tried to change mine before, but it didn't work. I gave it another try last week and made a white heart in a blue box. It didn't show up immediately, but I noticed it works for me this week when I view the blog! So maybe you see that too.
5. Tonight, we went to a meeting at school that was held by the Banzai group - a community of optometrists who are focused on practicing medical optometry, and being so successful they bring in at least a million dollars a year. It was so insightful, and I'm very glad I chose to go, and that I brought Jesse along to hear what they had to say. It was wonderful to see all of their passion, especially in the midst of feeling overwhelmed by school itself. It was good to be reminded of where I could be in just a few years, although the present seems difficult and unending.
Monday night my classmates and I received our white coats! This means that we are at the stage in our education that we are moving into the clinical setting, as we spend this year learning skills to care for our future patients.
Why a white coat? The back of our program for the ceremony summed it up best: "White was chosen with good reason as the new standard of the medical profession. White represented purity and is a visual reminder of the physician's commitment to do no harm. White represents goodness, cleanliness, symbolizes seriousness of purpose, and represents a cloak of compassion. Likewise, the white coat reminds optometrists of their professional duties to practice their art in honor. The white coat, as one of healthcare's most important symbols, signifies that a doctor's responsibility is not only to treat the patient, but also to care for patients well-being. Today, the White Coat is the universal symbol of the health profession."
We were able to invite a few guests, so my parents and Jesse's parents came. They are all so supportive of us! While looking over the photos, I just realized I only started out in this world with one of the four of them, but am so blessed to have each of them in my life.
And of course, my main squeeze (or, as he likes to be known, my sugar daddy). There are not enough words allowed in this post to express his love, support, and patience for the last... 10 ten years (literally), as I've worked toward this goal of optometry.
And while my whole class is amazing, these three girls here help me keep my head on straight. I don't think I could make it through without them!
The Interns Pledge
With full deliberation I freely and solemnly pledge that:
I will practice the art and science of optometry faithfully, conscientiously and to the fullest extent of my ability.
I will uphold and honorably promote by example and action the highest standards, ethics, and ideals of the optometric profession.
I will provide professional care for those who seek my services, with compassion and due regard for human rights and dignity.
I will hold as privileged and confidential all information entrusted to me by my patients.
I will place the treatment of those who seek my care above personal gain and strive to see that none shall lack for proper care.
