Vacation Week 1

SO my first week of vacation is over. One week remains before I start my Medicine AI (blech).

SO what have I accomplished?

Well, I dug up the dirt in dad's garden and I planted grass seed on Grandma's grave. I went to the movies to see Meet the Robinson's (fun movie btw) and sat on a panel about How to get into Pediatrics Residency. I also led my final Medical Student Society Lunch as a medical student (I just couldn't stay away from school completely). Then, after the lunch I went to the zoo.

Talk about a beautiful spectacular day. The weather could not have been more perfect. The tulips were all in the bloom, the animals were active. Here are a few pictures.



This is a picture of the entrance of the zoo....so pretty.



My favorite picture of the day....some of the 88 000 tulips currently in bloom.



The silverback gorilla taking a nap.

And finally,



Mom gorilla and her playful baby.

I also did a fair amount of stitching. I worked on my Britty puppy stocking and Mommy and Me this week. Still don't like Mommy and Me and it shows as I didn't really accomplish much.

Here are some pictures.






Not sure what I will do for the rest of my vacation though I did decide not to take a trip. I'll wait until after graduation for that.

Freedom Writers

I watched the most amazing movie tonight....Freedom writers. It is about a class of high school Freshman in Long Beach in the 1990's. Each of these kids had experienced countless amounts of violence, the loss of friends to jail or death, and a school system that had all but given up on them. It is the story of how one teacher really can make a difference. This teacher introduced them to Anne Frank and the Holocaust an event that none of them knew anything about. She gave them a journal that they were to write in every day. Each student had the opportunity to express themselves in their own unique ways and eventually the class became a family. There journals were compiled and published as a book...The Freedom Writers. They now also have a Foundation that strives to help other schools have the same impact on their children. Check it out here

http://www.freedomwritersfoundation.org/site/c.kqIXL2PFJtH/b.2259975/k.BF19/Home.htm

I can't fathom living in the inner cities of the United States and I can't imagine how difficult it is to get through to kids in the most violent schools. Regardless all children need someone to believe in them. All children should be given the chance to succeed.

Here's a clip of the movie preview.

Anxiety

The closer graduation is, the more anxious I become. I'm going to be a REAL doctor. People will depend on me. Do you know HOW TERRIFYING this is? I guess a bit of fear is healthy. It keeps you honest and prevents you from doing something stupid like some of my maverick classmates. I can't help but wonder what internship will really be like. Will I continue to love medicine as I have in medical school? Will my emotions get the best of me (I mean really, I cried when Sanjaya was voted off American Idol last night...and I didn't even like Sanjaya)? Will I get too attached to my patients? Can you really get too attached to patients? All of these and many more thoughts run through my head.

I'm on vacation now. I've done quite a bit of yard work. I dug up my dad's garden and planted grass on my grandma's grave. Couldn't go without some fresh flowers too. How Grandma loved flowers. Hard to believe she has been gone for over a year though she had really been gone for several years before her death. I miss the grandma of my youth and how hard it will be to go through graduation without her.

I seem so melancholy today. I'm not sure why...just sort of sad. Maybe it's PMS or the rain outside or both. I just feel blah. Perhaps this picture says it all....I'm contemplating my future. What path will it take?



Enough gloom for today.....Hopefully the sun will come out later today!

Word of the day

Brio! It means enthusiastic vigor, livliness, spirit.

Kinda sounds like a type of bread doesn't it!

Brio! I can't seem to type it without an exclamation point. What a fun word! Hmmm, how does it appy to my life? It is the way I interact with my patients. No matter how badly I feel or how tired I am, I try very hard to enter each room with brio. It's surprisingly not very difficult for me. I genuinely love patient care.

I'm finishing my last 4th year elective tomorrow leaving me with only one more rotation in medical school. Can it be true? We will remain in denial about that last rotation for now . Vacation begins tomorrow at 3:00! YAY!