Dude…

I only have three weeks left until I finish my first year of med school.

This is crazy yo. I'll literally be a second-year student by the end of this month! It's exciting and a bit spooky at the same time. Time is only moving forward. I'm getting older. More responsibility will be placed on me. I'll be taking Step 1 soon. There will be new first-years in a few months.

Wow.

It's just weird because it's one of those things that you always know it's coming but you always tell yourself it's in the far future, you know? Like, I knew first-year would eventually end, but I always thought about it as ending “sometime later in the future”. Well that “later” is three short weeks away. At the end of the day though, I feel ready to move on up in the medical school totem pole. I've been at the bottom long enough. I won't lie tho, I'll miss both the naiveness as well as the relative comfortability of first-year. I'll also miss having minimal responsibilities outside of studying and volunteering. Ah well, c'est la vie.

Now about my second Neuroscience test I took last week…that ish was looong! We had 3 hours and 40 minutes to answer 129 questions. I haven't taken a test that long in quite a while. Now some of those questions were simple and straightforward (bless those professors that picked those questions) but others were unnecessarily difficult. But I expected that…some professors never fail to pick ridiculous questions. Turns out that six questions on the test happened to be bonus questions and several others were dropped. Thing that gets me is, why do ridiculous questions continue to be picked on these exams? Some of these questions don't have to be that hard man…but then again, I'm not about to complain that we got free points lol. Shiiii, if you wanna keep picking bad questions and dropping them/making them bonus points, be my guest. I left the test overall feeling better about it then I felt about my first test, but you never know with these kind of exams. I got my grade back a couple of days later and I can happily say that it was one of my better performances of the year. 😊 Guess I was doing something right in the four weeks leading up to the exam! I also believe that my confidence was well-placed. I wasn't cocky or anything, but I was comfortable enough to control my performance on the test and not let anxiety take over me. Gotta believe in yourself to achieve success!

Speaking of anxiety, this section of material we're currently in is mainly based in psychology. So far, we've talked about personality disorders, anxiety + drugs to deal with anxiety, learning theory, mood disorders, psychotherapy and somatoform disorders. We have several other interesting topics to touch on in the near future, including but not limited to, childhood development, antidepressants, eating disorders, alcohol and marijuana usage. Turns out my psychology minor is being put to good use after all 😎. This section has been so straightforward so far and easy to digest. Plus, it's very interesting. Too bad our next block test is next Friday. And that we have a medical ethics final the Monday after that. And that I have a clinical skills test (my fourth CPX) this Wednesday. And that we have a cumulative Neuroscience test the Friday after next.

In other news, I had my last CCL (Case-Centered Learning) class last Tuesday! 😭😭😭 That was one of my favorite classes this year because it was such a cool concept and my facilitators & group members were sooo chill. I was here thinking that we would have the same CCL facilitators and groups next year but it turns out that they're changing up the course in ways I have no knowledge of yet. One of the doctors even brought us bananas and some good-ass homemade peanut-butter/chocolate brownies for our last day! Mannn ima miss them. Also, I learned what a Seder dinner was last week and even participated in one with a bunch of my classmates for the first time. For those of you not familiar, Seder is an annual Jewish ritual feast that celebrates the beginning of Passover. It was filled with songs, stories, food, some really good (& a little too sweet) red wine, and fellowship. It was cool that the school funded something like this; it definitely helped me further appreciate a culture that was outside of my own, which I believe was the overall reason that the school helped fund it. Understanding where different people come from and what rituals they practice in their culture or religion is not only instrumental in being an effective physician, but is also a cornerstone in destroying ignorance in the world while promoting unity in humankind. Plus, it's fun to expose yourself to things that you aren't familiar with! I guarantee that you'll learn many new things that you were unaware of before.

Well that's all folks! Be sure to have a dazzling week!

No matter where you are in life, celebrate it. It’s either a product of your growth or a place that will help you grow. – Unknown

– Black Man, M.D.