Student SPHere 2008-09

I have to admit, finding the balance is hard. When you have a job, school, homework and everything else in between that is commonly referred to as a social life…its hard! And the thing is, I can’t really complain because I don’t even have any kids! So a standing ovation for all public health students, NO students in general who have children and jobs and go to school full time- you are AMAZING! And ESPECIALLY if you are a woman at the same time, an ESPECIALLY long ovation for you.

Ok, so now that that has been accomplished, you should know that I have been swamped! The last two weeks have been filled with quizzes, 3 papers and a midterm. And not to mention my first day at the PNC (awesomeness by the way!), a career fair and a Christian convention (I sing). So yea as you can imagine my days have been filled with reading for assignments, writing, re writing, occasionally getting crazy on my roommates, looking a mess and I daresay forgetting to breathe! Of course, the rest of my life continued as usual, and I still showed up for work, although this past Monday I had to beg on my bosses compassion to let me stay home and finish up a quiz for my reproductive health class. Sometimes, the balancing act I call my life sways dangerously but I am proud to say I am a pretty good acrobat.

So two things stood out to me in all the madness and they both happened this week—being a clerk at the PNC and a midterm I took last night.
Monday was my first day as a volunteer as at the Phillips Neighborhood Clinic. This night I was training in as a clerk which is going to be one of my duties as a volunteer. What a clerk does basically is to organize teams to see each patient and manage the flow of teams between consulting rooms. Now considering that there are only three consulting rooms, a spare room—the “red room�? (where patient vitals can be taken) and another room for physical therapy, you can imagine that there was a significant amount of juggling going on. Also, there are only so many clinicians, pharm care volunteers and preceptors so the pressure was on. For my first day, I give myself a pat on the back for not folding under the pressure but I must admit there were times when I felt as if I was in the middle of a jungle and it was my job to keep order! But I got through the night, reported at 430PM and did not leave till 1045PM. Needless to say, I was snoring as soon as my feet touched my bed.

Now yesterday was the worst night of my life! For those of you who have taken Working in Global Health, you may know what I mean. I have only once back in college, had multiple, multiple choice exams in which you have a list of options and any number of them could be correct! The nerve wracking this about it was that we not only needed to know everything there was to know from the beginning of the term till now, but then being used to only one correct answer in multiple choice, you had to think twice even though you may already have one correct answer. It was a hectic 25 questions and in 30 minutes I had bitten my finger nails off and I stopped biting my nails years ago! Oh well, now we wait. I(and you) will know how I did in 2 weeks.

Assuming that someone is reading this, any suggestions on classes to take in global health? I have a 3 credit elective to take and I am shopping around for potential spring courses that have a global health focus. I would love to hear from you!!! d.