The semester is so close to the end I just want life to skip to the end, where I find out I got a 4.0GPA overall this semester.
Except that would only happen in a dream.
Starting from the top, in alphabetical order:
1) I finally got my Anthropology final paper done. What a pain that was. I woke up at 4am on wednesday morning (long story) and decided to sit down and do it. It only took me two hours, but it was still a lot of work, considering this professor has been the most laid back professor EVER, and now he asked for a detailed paper on concepts used from the book. Mind you he never cracked the book open this semester. Go figure. At least the paper is done, it looks good, and I'll get an A for it!
2) Cell bio: I think I'm warming up to the idea that a B+ is acceptable for that class. No joke: I got an 87% on my last exam. My overall average is an 87%... I was sort of disappointed, but I could be doing a lot worse, considering this class is used for the MCAT.
As far as the lab goes, I'm done with them. It felt AMAZING to turn in my last protocol last friday. My research is nearly completed. I'll be working on it tonight.
3) Chemistry: "Oh, the humanity!" *hangs head low* I'll never take an online chem class ever again. It's gotten to be a hassle. Good thing I have a study group otherwise I'd be in trouble. I may have mentioned my chem lab is done as well, I just have to turn in my final papers next thursday. WAHOO!
4) Trig: I skipped class on tuesday due to an inability to drive because of pure exhaustion. I learned from a classmate that the Math Dept has videos online on each section for what we're studying. It came quite in handy and has helped a lot thus far.
This week was a nicer week because there was school only monday-wednesday. I got saturday off (tomorrow) so that makes it even better! I haven't not had to work a saturday in ages... We may even make it to church on sunday! Sweet!
Thanksgiving was great! We went to my mother in law's house for dinner, which was delish! I ended up having to work that night, and that's okay. At least I get Christmas day off and New Years eve and New Years day off this year. That'll be fabulous, I can't wait!
My husband began shopping today (Black Friday) and got some good deals on stuff. I'm glad he was willing to do it because I don't have the patience for it. Hopefully we'll continue to find good deals because this year things are tight for us... but who isn't struggling?!
Hope the holiday was great for everyone!
Friday, November 27, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
So close!
I need a break from studying. Nothing better than to write about pretty much nothing :P
Four weeks until I'm done with the semester. 4 WEEKS. I can even taste it!
So I got two tests back this past week. I got my cell bio exam (which I may have mentioned already but in case I forgot, here it is): I got an 81% on my test. I was quite distraught as you can imagine, because the harder I work on that class, the lower my grades get. Maybe I shouldn't study at all, then maybe I'll start doing better! Yeah, right. It's consistently been going down, so in order to remedy that one, I went to a lecture done by someone who works for the Nano Institute here in Utah about nanotechnology. That guy was a genius. The title of the lecture was "Engineering Nanoconstructs for Drug Targeted Delivery". It was a very interesting lecture, and it related a lot to cell biology and chemistry. He even mentioned there are open positions in the lab for research, and I wish I could do it, but that would require me going to the lab to do research. My research right now is all done online, which makes it easier with my son.
My other exam was my math exam. That *bleepity bleep* exam was just horrendous. It may be partly due to the fact I was sleep deprived going into the test to begin with and couldn't remember much of what I had studied the previous night (I worked the night before then had to stay up the majority of the day taking care of my son). Regardless, I got a 64.5%. I have NEVER gotten such a low score on an exam in my whole entire life. I was fuming out of my ears. The class average was a 65%, which bothers me even more, because this is also the first time I was below the class average. After much cursing in my head, our professor once again has pity on us and lets us rework the problems to add half of our original score. So I'll end up with an A again. It's scary because either he's making his tests way harder than what the departmental final will be, or they'll be even worse. UGH!
My cell bio lab has ended. FINALLY! No more experiments that don't turn out! Wahoo! We just have a lab midterm in 2 weeks and that's all. I finished the biggest part of the research, and now it only has to be put into a report. I'm super excited because my professor said it'll likely be published with my name attached to it. That just makes me want to bounce off the walls with happiness! We'll see, though, I may totally screw it up at the very end, but that's highly unlikely. My professor would say something about it.
Speaking of my cell bio professor, I asked him if he'd be able to write me a letter of recommendation for me. He replied he'd be more than happy to, which is so awesome because I need a good strong letter for a couple of scholarships I'm applying for, and eventually, medical school. I also asked my boss for one and she was happy to write one as well. Now all I have to do is get my Letter of Recommendation Packets ready and sent out by the 9th. AAAHHH!
These last few weeks are going to be pure chaos (even worse than anything I've experience thus far). I have at least two tests every week until my last final on December 16th. Which is why I made myself as unavailable from volunteering from the 1st-16th because I'll need all the time I can get to study. I should take time off work too but work allows me to do my homework, and if I didn't come, I'd waste my time sleeping and wouldn't get paid or get my homework done. Lame. I pray for strength as these last few weeks crash on top of me.
I really feel bad for my husband and my son. I haven't been able to be with them a whole lot lately. This is where the severe guilt comes in. Going to school makes me feel like I'm horrible, selfish mom. I know I shouldn't feel that way because I'm ultimately doing what's best for my family and myself, but still. I look at my other girlfriends who have kids and get to stay home with them and I think that maybe that would be fun, but what would I do with myself psychologically? I'd go nuts! So I'm not sure why I feel guilty knowing well enough that I would go bonkers if I stayed home. Strange.
This next week will be interesting because of Thanksgiving. I'm working thursday night instead of saturday night, and so we're going to have family pictures done for the first time on saturday. It'll be fun. And ask me if I've bought our matching brown tops to wear yet? No. I found them online, I just have to go to Target to buy them.
I hope on Thanksgiving I'll remember all the things I'm grateful for. It's hard to look for blessings when you're consistently getting bombarded with problems. I guess that's just how life is.
Happy Thanksgiving!... and back to studying now.
Four weeks until I'm done with the semester. 4 WEEKS. I can even taste it!
So I got two tests back this past week. I got my cell bio exam (which I may have mentioned already but in case I forgot, here it is): I got an 81% on my test. I was quite distraught as you can imagine, because the harder I work on that class, the lower my grades get. Maybe I shouldn't study at all, then maybe I'll start doing better! Yeah, right. It's consistently been going down, so in order to remedy that one, I went to a lecture done by someone who works for the Nano Institute here in Utah about nanotechnology. That guy was a genius. The title of the lecture was "Engineering Nanoconstructs for Drug Targeted Delivery". It was a very interesting lecture, and it related a lot to cell biology and chemistry. He even mentioned there are open positions in the lab for research, and I wish I could do it, but that would require me going to the lab to do research. My research right now is all done online, which makes it easier with my son.
My other exam was my math exam. That *bleepity bleep* exam was just horrendous. It may be partly due to the fact I was sleep deprived going into the test to begin with and couldn't remember much of what I had studied the previous night (I worked the night before then had to stay up the majority of the day taking care of my son). Regardless, I got a 64.5%. I have NEVER gotten such a low score on an exam in my whole entire life. I was fuming out of my ears. The class average was a 65%, which bothers me even more, because this is also the first time I was below the class average. After much cursing in my head, our professor once again has pity on us and lets us rework the problems to add half of our original score. So I'll end up with an A again. It's scary because either he's making his tests way harder than what the departmental final will be, or they'll be even worse. UGH!
My cell bio lab has ended. FINALLY! No more experiments that don't turn out! Wahoo! We just have a lab midterm in 2 weeks and that's all. I finished the biggest part of the research, and now it only has to be put into a report. I'm super excited because my professor said it'll likely be published with my name attached to it. That just makes me want to bounce off the walls with happiness! We'll see, though, I may totally screw it up at the very end, but that's highly unlikely. My professor would say something about it.
Speaking of my cell bio professor, I asked him if he'd be able to write me a letter of recommendation for me. He replied he'd be more than happy to, which is so awesome because I need a good strong letter for a couple of scholarships I'm applying for, and eventually, medical school. I also asked my boss for one and she was happy to write one as well. Now all I have to do is get my Letter of Recommendation Packets ready and sent out by the 9th. AAAHHH!
These last few weeks are going to be pure chaos (even worse than anything I've experience thus far). I have at least two tests every week until my last final on December 16th. Which is why I made myself as unavailable from volunteering from the 1st-16th because I'll need all the time I can get to study. I should take time off work too but work allows me to do my homework, and if I didn't come, I'd waste my time sleeping and wouldn't get paid or get my homework done. Lame. I pray for strength as these last few weeks crash on top of me.
I really feel bad for my husband and my son. I haven't been able to be with them a whole lot lately. This is where the severe guilt comes in. Going to school makes me feel like I'm horrible, selfish mom. I know I shouldn't feel that way because I'm ultimately doing what's best for my family and myself, but still. I look at my other girlfriends who have kids and get to stay home with them and I think that maybe that would be fun, but what would I do with myself psychologically? I'd go nuts! So I'm not sure why I feel guilty knowing well enough that I would go bonkers if I stayed home. Strange.
This next week will be interesting because of Thanksgiving. I'm working thursday night instead of saturday night, and so we're going to have family pictures done for the first time on saturday. It'll be fun. And ask me if I've bought our matching brown tops to wear yet? No. I found them online, I just have to go to Target to buy them.
I hope on Thanksgiving I'll remember all the things I'm grateful for. It's hard to look for blessings when you're consistently getting bombarded with problems. I guess that's just how life is.
Happy Thanksgiving!... and back to studying now.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Life's CRAZY challenges
What an insane week.
That's the understatement of the year. I think I would've gone crazy if I had to work my friday shift (I got cancelled, yeah!!!) and not cleaned my house yesterday. I need a clean house to be able to think clearly. The thought of having a dirty house hovers over me like a black cloud.
My husband and I went on a date on tuesday night because we had to talk about some complicated matters, such as him going back to school in the spring part-time (which if he doesn't, then we'll start paying back his student loans and they're NOT cheap), about him finding a job with better pay and inexpensive benefits, about me going to part-time, and having another child, amongst other things. I feel like we have come to this fork on the road of our lives and because we have so many choices, it's vital that we make the right decision at this point not to screw up things down the road.
One of the things we considered is holding off on a baby for 10+ years, at least until I'm finishing up a residency. There are two reasons why we'd do it this way: first, we may have to downsize our insurance for next year if I go part-time (it will double when I go part-time and keep the same plan I have) and my husband can't find a job, and because of that, it'd be crazy to get pregnant and deliver in 2010. We'd be paying up the wazoo for it. It sucks that our son won't have sibling for a long time, but he wouldn't know any better. The problem with waiting that long is the chance of having a Trisomy-21 baby because of our age... These are such difficult decisions, I wish someone would come to me and tell me exactly what to do. haha
I'm very close to finishing up my research. I stayed up until 4:30am on wednesday night to get the majority of it done in time to ask my professor some questions before lab on friday. I'm hoping to get it done this morning after I get off work. It'd be quite the weight being lifted off my shoulders! I'm wanting to continue it next semester as independent research (and to count towards my pre-med requirements), but I'm still pondering about it.
I also found out this week that I'm getting a B+ in cell biology so far, which is quite disappointing considering the amount of work I've put into it. Oh well, I can only try harder I guess.
I have two papers due as finals in December. One is for Chemistry (I know, go figure?!) and another one for Anthropology. I just got the one for Chemistry done tonight, only because it's the easiest of the two. I'll be writing my Anthropology paper next weekend, this way I'm not cramming so many things into one week.
I was finally able to look up the classes I need to be taking next semester at the university I'm transfering to, and the times they offer them are horrible. I'm still puzzled as to how I'm going to find someone reliable enough to watch my son while I go to school during the day.
And the first real snow of the year fell yesterday... and because of the cold, a chip in my windshield turned into a whole crack. Now I have to replace the whole windshield. Not to mention my husband's car broke down on wednesday and I've been having to drive him to work, and we also have to take that car in to get the engine looked at. *sigh* :'(
When it rains, it pours, doesn't it?
That's the understatement of the year. I think I would've gone crazy if I had to work my friday shift (I got cancelled, yeah!!!) and not cleaned my house yesterday. I need a clean house to be able to think clearly. The thought of having a dirty house hovers over me like a black cloud.
My husband and I went on a date on tuesday night because we had to talk about some complicated matters, such as him going back to school in the spring part-time (which if he doesn't, then we'll start paying back his student loans and they're NOT cheap), about him finding a job with better pay and inexpensive benefits, about me going to part-time, and having another child, amongst other things. I feel like we have come to this fork on the road of our lives and because we have so many choices, it's vital that we make the right decision at this point not to screw up things down the road.
One of the things we considered is holding off on a baby for 10+ years, at least until I'm finishing up a residency. There are two reasons why we'd do it this way: first, we may have to downsize our insurance for next year if I go part-time (it will double when I go part-time and keep the same plan I have) and my husband can't find a job, and because of that, it'd be crazy to get pregnant and deliver in 2010. We'd be paying up the wazoo for it. It sucks that our son won't have sibling for a long time, but he wouldn't know any better. The problem with waiting that long is the chance of having a Trisomy-21 baby because of our age... These are such difficult decisions, I wish someone would come to me and tell me exactly what to do. haha
I'm very close to finishing up my research. I stayed up until 4:30am on wednesday night to get the majority of it done in time to ask my professor some questions before lab on friday. I'm hoping to get it done this morning after I get off work. It'd be quite the weight being lifted off my shoulders! I'm wanting to continue it next semester as independent research (and to count towards my pre-med requirements), but I'm still pondering about it.
I also found out this week that I'm getting a B+ in cell biology so far, which is quite disappointing considering the amount of work I've put into it. Oh well, I can only try harder I guess.
I have two papers due as finals in December. One is for Chemistry (I know, go figure?!) and another one for Anthropology. I just got the one for Chemistry done tonight, only because it's the easiest of the two. I'll be writing my Anthropology paper next weekend, this way I'm not cramming so many things into one week.
I was finally able to look up the classes I need to be taking next semester at the university I'm transfering to, and the times they offer them are horrible. I'm still puzzled as to how I'm going to find someone reliable enough to watch my son while I go to school during the day.
And the first real snow of the year fell yesterday... and because of the cold, a chip in my windshield turned into a whole crack. Now I have to replace the whole windshield. Not to mention my husband's car broke down on wednesday and I've been having to drive him to work, and we also have to take that car in to get the engine looked at. *sigh* :'(
When it rains, it pours, doesn't it?
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Rollin', rollin', rollin'...
The weeks are now FLYING past me. And I mean it. I can't believe it's already almost the middle of November, which gives me hope that the semester will end in 6 weeks! Sweet :D
Last week was like going to hell and coming back. I've only had problems with my online Chemistry class and although my professor says he can help, he still says that we need to study the modules he writes based on the book, and that we should be able to find every answer to the questions off the modules. Yeah, right. His tests keep getting shorter and shorter, so if you miss one question, the best you can get is a 90%. What a joke.
Next beast on the list was one huge cell biology test I had last friday. It was test #3, and I thought that by now I figured out how my professor tested. Which I did. Except I didn't study enough because I was so busy with chemistry, I felt like I failed the test. The problem with that test (and it was a problem with the last test as well) is that he writes these long tests that require at least 1 1/2 hrs of thought into it and we only have 50 minutes to complete it. We can't think about the questions long enough and end up doing horribly. I studied for 2 days while there was this other pre-med student in the class that only started studying after midnight on the day of the test. Yikes! It's so funny how although I have a kid and have all this other stuff to take care of, I still manage to find barely enough time to study, while other students only start studying less than 24 hrs before the test. The lab for it is also really difficult and poorly written, which is why I hate going to lab, and therefore hate Fridays overall. We never finish our lab experiments and if we do, the results are different than the expected results.
My husband wasn't able to get the whole afternoon off on thursday and I wasn't able to go in and do the new teacher evaluations for extra credit in Cell Bio. I was sad but because it wasn't mandatory, it's fine. At least I can feel confident that when the semester ends and I get an A, it was all my hard work :)
I really don't mean to rant for this long. I'm just really stressed out. The end of the semester is in 6 weeks and things are starting to pile up quickly. My research is due by the end of the semester also and I only have it halfway done. Don't get me wrong, I love doing everything I'm doing and I wouldn't want it any other way, but when stress gets to me, I begin panicking. I hope to have the strength to survive the end of the semester without messing everything up, especially my grades and my family life.
Even my husband and my son miss me.
This last tuesday I decided it was time to do something as a family, and we went out to dinner at a pizzaria and went bowling afterwards. It was really fun. My son learned how to push the ball towards the pins and I also learned that no matter how much I bowl, I can never manage to get a score better than 100. It's pathetic, but it's something I can handle not being good at without being too upset about it.
I love being busy but now it's getting tricky... and somehow it all works out. It's the life of a pre-med mommy :)
Last week was like going to hell and coming back. I've only had problems with my online Chemistry class and although my professor says he can help, he still says that we need to study the modules he writes based on the book, and that we should be able to find every answer to the questions off the modules. Yeah, right. His tests keep getting shorter and shorter, so if you miss one question, the best you can get is a 90%. What a joke.
Next beast on the list was one huge cell biology test I had last friday. It was test #3, and I thought that by now I figured out how my professor tested. Which I did. Except I didn't study enough because I was so busy with chemistry, I felt like I failed the test. The problem with that test (and it was a problem with the last test as well) is that he writes these long tests that require at least 1 1/2 hrs of thought into it and we only have 50 minutes to complete it. We can't think about the questions long enough and end up doing horribly. I studied for 2 days while there was this other pre-med student in the class that only started studying after midnight on the day of the test. Yikes! It's so funny how although I have a kid and have all this other stuff to take care of, I still manage to find barely enough time to study, while other students only start studying less than 24 hrs before the test. The lab for it is also really difficult and poorly written, which is why I hate going to lab, and therefore hate Fridays overall. We never finish our lab experiments and if we do, the results are different than the expected results.
My husband wasn't able to get the whole afternoon off on thursday and I wasn't able to go in and do the new teacher evaluations for extra credit in Cell Bio. I was sad but because it wasn't mandatory, it's fine. At least I can feel confident that when the semester ends and I get an A, it was all my hard work :)
I really don't mean to rant for this long. I'm just really stressed out. The end of the semester is in 6 weeks and things are starting to pile up quickly. My research is due by the end of the semester also and I only have it halfway done. Don't get me wrong, I love doing everything I'm doing and I wouldn't want it any other way, but when stress gets to me, I begin panicking. I hope to have the strength to survive the end of the semester without messing everything up, especially my grades and my family life.
Even my husband and my son miss me.
This last tuesday I decided it was time to do something as a family, and we went out to dinner at a pizzaria and went bowling afterwards. It was really fun. My son learned how to push the ball towards the pins and I also learned that no matter how much I bowl, I can never manage to get a score better than 100. It's pathetic, but it's something I can handle not being good at without being too upset about it.
I love being busy but now it's getting tricky... and somehow it all works out. It's the life of a pre-med mommy :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)