Happy Halloween!!!

This week went by so fast I didn't even see it. Even the worst day of the week- Friday- wasn't that bad this week. I wonder what happened? Maybe I'm just so accustomed to the chaos of Fridays that they don't even phase me anymore.
My chemistry teacher is really making his exams trick and I'm not liking it one bit. There is no reason to make tests tricky, unless he enjoys seeing his students average a C- in his class. I took exam 4 this week with my study group and we got an 80. What? We go through all that trouble of studying together and making sure we take the test together so we get a good score, and the best we can do is an 80... psh! It doesn't help that the test was only 12 questions long, so missing one question makes a huge difference. Sign me up for long tests only, please!
The trig professor decided to have pity on us - remember the class average was a 58%, I pulled an equivalent to an A if it wasn't for a genius that got a 98% on it- so he let us re-work all the problems we got wrong on the test and reward us with half of our original test score. According to my calculations and after I'm awarded the other half, I'll be at a 108.7%. Not too shabby!
I also found out that I'm getting an A in Chem lab. Wahoo! So excited. I thought I was doing poorly on the lab reports but apparently not. It helped I brough a roll of paper towels to the second day of class as extra credit to help my score go up. You can never go wrong with an extra roll of toilet paper.
Speaking of extra credit, given my husband gets home early from work on thursday, I have the opportunity to go grade teachers on their teaching skills. They're trying to hire a Physiology professor for the college I'm going to, and one of the things they have to do is to have students grade their teaching methods. Because my biol professor is the head of the Biology dept, he's giving us up to 10 extra credit points if we attend 2 sessions of it. Should be interesting. Once again, I volunteered for it (because obviously I have nothing else to do with my life at this point...). But I want an A in the class, dang it!
This week was an interesting week because regardless of the fact my plate is so full I can't eat fast enough, I also signed up for volunteering. Sounds like a really bad move, especially for now, but I figured I've been BSing on Facebook too much still and needed to use that time wisely. And volunteering is all done online, and I only need to do it one hour per week. It's through icouldbe.org and I get to be a mentor and a support to underpriviledged teenagers who would otherwise drop out of high school and never go on to college, which is SOOOOO important, I can't stress it enough! So far I haven't had any mentees choose me as their mentor, but I'm sure it'll happen soon. I'll worry if two weeks pass by and nothing happens, though.
For Halloween, I did a good job at blowing it this year! I told my husband he has to plan it next year because apparently I don't seem to be able to handle it. I forgot to plan ahead and buy my son's Halloween costume on time, which resulted in him wearing the same thing he wore last year. I was bummed because I was hoping to see him in something besides a pumpkin costume, nonetheless he looked adorable, and he doesn't remember wearing it last year, which is a plus. My husband took him trick-or-treating at the mall and at first he didn't know why people were willingly placing candy in his bucket, but towards the end he figured out the deal and he'd point to the candy to make sure he got what he was worth. Haha Good thing they got video of it and I was able to watch it before I came to work tonight. It sucks to work the night before and the night of Halloween because I felt like I couldn't get anything done on time without having to hurry through it all. What a nightmare! And to top things off, daylight savings time ends tonight which means I have to stay at work for an extra hour. Swell. I'm happy though that I'm working with a great crew tonight and so it'll be very bearable!
I hope everyone had a great Halloween!

What a week...

This week has been quite the interesting one!!! I worked monday night and I ended up being so tired Tuesday, despite sleeping more than my usual 3 hrs during the day, that I still couldn't think or speak coherently, therefore I missed my trig class. Bummer, because I really wanted to know what my exam score ended up being!
So I go to Trig class on thursday. I do have to back up a bit and mention how I thought I had done exceptionally on that test last week. However, the test was too long, and most of us ended up not being able to check our work due to lack of time. I show up to class on Tuesday to find out I had gotten a 72.5%. WHAT?!?! I almost threw my test back at my professor's face. I was in shock. A few minutes later, a colleague of mine turns to me and says, as I'm looking at my exam in disbelief, "The average was a 58%. The high was a 98%, but that was an outlier because the next high score was a 74%. Shouldn't he curve?" OH YES, HE SHOULD!!! If he curves that would bring my score up to a 85%, and I'd rather take a B than a C- any day!!! If I was a professor and my students were averaging a fail on my test, I'd be completely embarrassed...
Wednesday I got my score back from the anthropology exam we had taken last week... I got the usual 100%. That teacher is really hard to follow, but holy cow, are his tests easy or what!! I was very happy about that :)
Thursday night into friday morning my son didn't sleep well during the night. I believe this may be due to teething. Poor little guy.... constantly chewing on his fingers. After being up half the night I gave him Tylenol, but it only turned out to be a temporary relief for him. I didn't go to sleep until 5:30, and then got up at 8:30am to get ready to go to school. It was a rough day. I only got a one hour nap in (while he was napping) so I could come to work tonight... I'm struggling really bad. I'm chewing on ice chips to try to cool my body down enough that I won't fall asleep (if I get too warm and cozy that's when I'm gone). This sucks.
It's times like these that I wonder if I've gone completely off the edge. Who does this kind of thing... I mean, who does all this work only to impress themselves? I think that's what's happening at the moment. Something's gotta give here... oh, and I forgot to mention I just signed up for online volunteering as well. I either have to congratulate myself or give myself a big slap in the face. I can't decide...
BUT life moves on. I HAVE to take it one day at a time... even when my most dreaded day of the week comes around (fridays). On fridays I take it one hour at a time. That's just how it works for me. But it's doable. I much would rather keep busy than to be depressed and not doing anything but working like I was during the summer.
I always tell myself, "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming..." - Finding Nemo

Research

One of the things pre-med students have to do in order to look good on a med school application is independent research. Lots of medical schools out there are notoriously known for their research, and they want to be able to see students with some experience in it. So some of them make it a requirement, like the one I'm applying for here in my town.
My cell biology class is taught by the Biology Dept head at my community college. That guy is a genius. He's a really good professor and is very efficient at teaching. He's been teaching cell bio for like 20+ years, so I'm told, and this semester he got into a research project and puts us all to work with (for!) him.
The research is on this bacteria that was just found in Puerto Rico that needs to have its whole genome mapped. That would be about 3.9 million nucleotide pairs. Except we can't get through 3.9 million in one semester, so we have to do only 1% of it, so 50,000 nucleotide pairs. As a class, we mapped the genes, then our professor took a concensus of all our maps and made a hypothesis map. Then he assigned each of us 3 of those genes, then we research it and see if it really is a gene, and what is it..  We finally make a report of it and if we are right and we get a good score on it, our name gets published with the work. SO COOL!!!
I think I'm the only one that thinks it's cool, though. From what I hear, the rest of my class hates it :( Maybe I'm just cut out for doing research as a doctor? I dunno. Bottom line is, he offered us to do this as independent research next semester and I totally want to do it, although I won't be a student at the community college anymore. I think it'll be a great research experience! And it helps that I'm interested in genetics, which makes the whole experience worthwhile for me.
Oh and did I mention the other school that's mapping the same genome (starting from the opposite end, however) is Johns Hopkins? That's even better :)

So now that I'm caught up to this point of what I'm doing in my life right now, I think I'll start the diary part of this blog and that's what I'll do until I either 1) quit, 2) forget about it, or 3) die. haha

This semester thus far...

When I first announced that I was going to be working full-time and going to school full-time, back in August, people acted horrified. Honestly, I was a little scared too, and it wasn't just because it was going to be busy, but what I was REALLY worried about was trying to get into a routine as soon as possible. That was my number one priority!
Being a mom in school and working requires a very strict routine, and I believe that is the only way to make this busy schedule work. I'm BIG into routines. Everything has a time to be done. My baby.. I should say toddler now because he's really not a baby anymore.. my toddler takes a nap at the same time every day, and goes to bed at the same time every day. We eat at the same time every day. There's a right time for doing homework, taking a shower, giving my son a bath, etc... I know. It sounds like I'm the most strict mom in the world, but the truth is, life is a lot better that way. Sure, we do things spontaneously, such as going out to the playground to let my son play or going to playgroups, but overall, life has a routine. Which is why I can make this whole thing work between school, my job, and family life.
So this semester I'm taking my first batch of pre-med classes. It's exciting to finally be able to work on classes I am interested about instead of the ol' boring general classes. Good thing I got those out of the way and I never have to worry about that ever again! Right now I'm taking Cell Biology, Chem I, Anthropology 1010, and Trigonometry. The first three classes are my major requirements; Trig is necessary to get to Calculus I, which is a major requirement.
Here's a sample of my schedule, along with work:
Sunday- day off
Monday- class from 10-10:50, work 7pm-7am
Tuesday- Zombie Mommy Day. Do laundry, try to sleep as much as possible, class from 5:30-6:50.
Wednesday- class at 10-10:50, then again from 5:30-8:20.
Thursday- class from 5:30p-6:50, then again from 8p-9:15.
Friday (the most horrible day of the week)- class from 10-10:50, again from 2-4:30p, then work from 7pm-7am :(
Saturday- sleep all day, work again 7pm-7am.
So there. It's busy. Working nights has its pros and cons, though. The cons is that I'm literally taking 2 days of sleep to recoup from each shift. The pros is that my husband and I don't pay for daycare, and I get paid extra for the night shift, and if it's slow, I get to do my homework. It's quite lovely, to be honest.
Now you ask... "How are my classes?" The answer is quite simple: they're busy (for obvious reasons!).
My Anthropology class is easy. This is the class that gets put on the back burner for the most part. I'm ahead of the teacher in reading by 4 chapters. He's slow. But it's an easy A.
My cell biology class has a lab. The lecture is ok. My teacher is straight forward, and he's really good. The lab, though, had a tough start. The experiments weren't written correctly, and it was just a mess. But we started a research project and I'll write more about it on the next post.
My chem class is chem class. The lecture is online, so I don't have to study too hard for the tests hahah I go to chem lab, though and it isn't too difficult.
My trig class, like chem, is trig class. It's busy work. The homework is all done online, which takes a long time to get through because the online format is picky about how you type in your answers. It's a real pain in the "you-know-where".
Anyway. I'll write more later. This is super long, already!

School woes

I have been out of high school for 5 years. I loved high school, especially my senior year. I had lots of friends, took harder classes and got good grades, had a boyfriend whom I had been dating for a year (I am now married to him!), and things were good. I tried really hard to be popular, and even ran for class Historian in order to put that on my college application, although I didn't win. Eventually, I spoke at my high school graduation and that was by far one of the best days of my life.
Then I go to college. They really don't prepare you for the amount of work you have to put into one single 3-credit class, do they?
I have been going to college for the last 5 years, a few semesters here and there. I spent about nine months of it going into a vocational school because I had this silly idea of wanting to become a dental assistant. It didn't work out for me, so I ended up going back to school at a community college for Nursing. It was a big change from being in classes of 100+ students at the university to classes with 20 people. They even take roll at the community college. I felt like I was back in high school!
In the spring of 2008, I was taking a full load (12 credits) of classes and was due at the middle of April with our first child. I was also working full time, and it was really difficult because at one point my husband was laid off from his job and I had to kick it up a notch and work overtime to pay the bills. We also bought a condo that February and my mom was going through a nasty divorce. How did I keep up, you ask? I developed heart problems associated with the pregnancy, and I had preterm labor from all the stress at work and home. Needless to say, I was DONE! My son arrived on his due date, and both him and I were sick for a few weeks. Good thing my professors knew ahead of time I was about to deliver and they were very nice and supportive through the whole thing since I couldn't really come to class for about 2 weeks, heading straight into finals. So my point of me telling you about my experience with delivering in the middle of the semester is that it's very difficult to deal with all of it, especially if you end up having complications. Being sleep deprived was the worst thing I've had to endure and it was hard to study when my mind wasn't clear to think straight. My advice for all the moms/moms-to-be out there? If you can plan your pregnancies, and you're going to school, deliver in the summer, or a semester you're not going to school. It's much easier that way and you can develop a bond with your baby and not with your textbooks.
I finally got my Associates of Science in General Studies this past spring. I didn't even walk, I figured I could save myself the money of paying for a cap and gown and go out to dinner with my family to celebrate instead!
Then the unexpected happened: I had to switch my majors. I'm happy I did it for a variety of reasons, and now it'll only take me less than 3 years to graduate with my Bachelor's degree compared to the previous 6-7 years. I still stayed at the community college for this semester (I took summer off) because I was too late in applying back at the university, bla bla bla.
This is already long so next time I post, I'll talk about my first batch of pre-med classes I'm taking right now :)
Toodles!

First post!

I was contemplating for a long time about creating this blog for the purpose of enlightening other moms who are wanting to go into medical school. So I finally broke down and did it!
This blog will be a diary of my struggles and accomplishments as I try to get through the hoops of getting accepted into a medical school, next as a medical school student, and later, as a resident (AKA doctor!).
A little bit about myself:
I'm Silvia, I'm a 23 year old married to a wonderful, supportive husband, and mom to our great toddler. He's so great, we don't know what we would do without him!
I've wanted to be a doctor for a few years now. I first wanted to get my BSN, and got as close as only having one class left before applying for a program. But I wasn't satisfied, so I decided to be a doctor, partly because of one experience I had while working at the hospital as a CNA a few years ago, in which (not to brag or anything!) I nearly saved a baby's life. It was a humbling experience, but one I will never forget. That baby was the reason why I chose being a doctor would be more of a fulfilling career for me than just being an RN.
So this is where I am.
Right now I work at a hospital as a CNA and a unit clerk. I love it there. I find the medical field so fascinating and I will never do anything else! I have to work full-time for financial reasons, but I only have to be there 3 times/week, so it's not too bad. It helps when your co-workers are your best friends :)
I find it's crucial to work in a healthcare setting when deciding if being a doctor is the best decision for you. You have to know that doctors are busy people with a ton of patients that need to be watched over. The more closely you work with a doctor, the better chances you'll have of knowing exactly what they do and how much work they have to do. It isn't an easy task, obviously, but very rewarding.
BUT if you don't have the opportunity of working with one or working in healthcare at all, it's wise to do lots of shadowing. You'll want to know what you're getting yourself into before you jump in the water! That will save you time and money. I was getting my BSN and had to quickly change my major to Anthropology with Health Emphasis because I was told that route was not going to work for the school I'm going to, plus it was going to take me an extra 5-6 years to finish all my pre-reqs for med school. Now it'll only take me a bit less than 3. I'm happy with my decision and I'm glad I changed my majors (although it would be nice to be an RN and know just a bit more than my new colleagues in med school!)
More to come...