Ahhh, the calm after the storm is truly peaceful. This past week was very very very very hard. I had finals in all of my classes except one. I also had three papers to write, one thesis presentation, a photography portfolio to finish, etc, etc. Last Sunday, I was looking at my To Do list and I started having a headache. I just couldn’t see how it was all going to work out. But the Lord is good…everything is done and I’m just chillin right now. My actual finals week is next week, but I only have one final, and that is in Gross Anatomy. She said that the final is going to be composed of 60% (what we haven’t been tested on yet) and 40% (old stuff). She said that she is going to make it very similar to the Step 1 Boards with lots and lots of clinical questions. It sounds fun, but it also sounds scary. With those kind of questions, you actually have to know the information and understand it to even tackle the clinical problem. So yeah, that final is on Tuesday, so after the Sabbath, I’m going to hit it hard.
The Lab Coordinator for the Gross Anatomy lab had a meeting with the juniors who were taking the class who were going to be lab instructors next year (that included me). She basically went through everything that we needed to do. At the end of the year, when the body has been completely dissected, we have to fill out a pathology report on the cadaver. The pathology report basically highlights any abnormalities that we found while dissecting. When we receive the bodies, they already have causes of death on their report, but as we are dissecting we may find new information that may indicate further causes of death, or we may just find more stuff to confirm their original cause of death; like excessive plaque in the coronary arteries for a lady that had atherosclerotic disease on her report. In body 62-05 (I prefer referring to them by their number…their mom gave them names and I don’t want to give them another one), we found a massive tumor around where her thyroid gland should have been. You should have seen it, it had its own extensive blood supply. I can see how those things eventually drain the life out of you. Anyway, the tumor wasn’t on the pathology report so we have to write it on there as another possible cause of death. But I started all this to say……????……oh yeah, so we also learned from her all the things that have to be done before we can mail the body back to California for cremation. We learned from the teacher of the Gross Anatomy lecture class that the lab instructors (us) will basically have full control over the lab. Its going to be good to have autonomy in the lab…I really hope that we can help our fellow classmates to learn, and I really hope that I can learn way more in the process. The lab coordinator didn’t tell us where she is going, but I suspect she is going to medical school. First off, running a gross anatomy lab for 3 years has to be a great aspect of a med school app, also, one day when I was talking with a future freshman, she told the freshman to go up on SDN and read my journal. No one goes on SDN for real if they don’t want to be a doctor. Also, she doesn’t hit me off as one to like research, so yeah, if she did get into medical school, I’m really happy for her. I know that she is going to KILL that Gross Anatomy class apart because of all her experience.
I’m moving out of the house I live in. I currently live with a she-witch and I can’t take it anymore. I’m trying to decide where to live, and also whether I should live by myself or with a roommate. Living alone is cool because you can walk around your place naked, but it also costs a lot. I don’t know, I’ve just had problems at every place I’ve lived, so I want to try living alone for a bit.
I really, truly can’t believe that I’m about to be a senior!!! I seems like just yesterday that I was walking into the freshmen boy’s dorm, and now I’m about to be out! I’m also very excited about starting my AMCAS application. So far, I think I might pull out with all A’s this semester, which would be an answer to prayer, because I really wanted the last semester that would make it on my transcript before I send it off to AMCAS to be good. I’ve been perusing the Pre-Allo forums a lot more lately, and I found out that the AMCAS 2007 should open around May 2nd or 3rd. That is so close by, and I’m really excited. I’ve also made my mdapplicants profile. I know that its not a big deal, but I’ve been on SDN since my freshman year of college and I’ve always seen these people showing off with their mdapps profile in their signature. It showed that they were in the app process…well now I get to, and I can be pressed about it all by myself! All but one of my LORs has been submitted to Interfolio, and my personal statement is currently being proof read by a very picky, perfectionist friend, and my favorite professor. I know that I’m going to probably get flak for my opening paragraph, but I really think I’m going to stand firm on that paragraph. So many people think that this thing needs to be real formal, but I feel the opposite. My whole personality is anti-formal, and although I know I’m taking a gamble…I’m willing to take it. The only thing that is out of the ordinary is that paragraph, everything else is fine. I hope that adcomm readers pay attention to the content. Anyway, I guess I’ll hear back within a week or so, about what they think about it. I really wanted them to read it for grammatical errors, but I’m sure that I’ll get flak for some of the content too.
Today I was elected president of the Oakwood Bio-Medical Association (OBMA). I’m pretty happy about it, and I just hope that I can lead the organization to new heights.
I e-mailed Johns Hopkins today to find out which lab I’ll be working in this summer. I received the e-mail back with a link to the guy’s bio. The guy’s name is Samer Hattar, and you can find his profile on the following link http://www.bio.jhu.edu/Faculty/Default.html. He’s a Arab (I think) guy, which is pretty cool to me. The last lab I worked with was all Asian, and I couldn’t really communicate with a lot of the people there, because a lot of them didn’t speak english. Hopefully, this summer will be really fun. The research his lab is doing seems pretty cool. I wonder if I should ever mention to any of the people in the lab that I’m applying to medical school. I’m sure it will come up some time, but I wonder if I will offend them or something. I don’t want them to feel like I’m just using their program as a means to an end, even though that is partly true. Anyway, there is a lot of hype about Hopkins, and I can’t wait to see if it lives up to it.
Next week is going to be filled with me working on my AMCAS app and looking for an apartment. I’ll write again if anything interesting happens.
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