After my first email (6 weeks into my journey through PA school) I had hoped to be able to send out updates every 6 or 8 weeks. This, obviously, did not happen. It seems that exams and classes got the better of me and now I find myself only 2 ½ weeks from the end of the semester and just now sending my second update. You’ll forgive me I’m sure.
So here’s a glimpse at what the past 4 months has looked like for me.
Classes and Where I’ve Been…
If I remember correctly, the last time I wrote I had just finished a month of all day- everyday Anatomy and started into a full schedule of all my fall classes. Classes have been extremely challenging but I have been enjoying what we are learning and doing my best to keep up. Over Labor Day weekend I traveled to North Carolina for two days to visit with friends and then headed to VA beach to watch some friends run the half marathon. It was a great time of refreshment and relaxation. When I returned to PA the exams began. From there on out we had at least two exams a week. The second to last week in September and the first week in October saw three exams each. Those weeks were long and tiring but I made it through. The weekend of October 13th I returned to NC for the wedding of some good friends Kevin and Shannon. It was again a great time to see friends, be refreshed, and celebrate the marriage of the Ferguson’s! When I returned to PA that Sunday night I couldn’t bare the thought that it would be 2 ½ months until I was able to return so I made the decision to come back to NC two weeks later (over my fall break) and I was able to join my old Sunday School class for their annual fall retreat to the mountains. What a joy it was to join friends, fellowship and worship, and enjoy God’s amazing creation! I returned to PA once again, refreshed and ready to finish out the semester.
The last four weeks have been challenging but also encouraging. I finally seemed to find that “groove” everyone had assured me I would find and the day in/day out grind of classes, studying, and exams became more bearable. Last week I was able to go home to Pittsburgh and be with my family for Thanksgiving. It was just what I needed. The time with my parents and my aunt and cousins was encouraging and refreshing and I was more than spoiled during the time. In five short days we ate a lot of turkey, went to the movies twice, the symphony and the theater once, and my stepmother even took me shopping. All things that I haven’t been able to do since starting school!
Last Monday morning we started the road to the end of the semester. This and next week are the wrap up of all our classes and the beginning of finals. I have two finals next week, three the following week, and two the week after that. And then we have an entire month off for Christmas before returning in January!!!
Philadelphia, Roommates, and Life in General…
I had hoped that after my last email I would be able to write and say how well I had settled in to life in Philadelphia, that living arrangements had worked out great and that I had found an amazing church to attend.
Unfortunately this just isn’t the case. I have struggled on a daily basis with life in Philly. I have tried my hardest to reach out to my roommates but am continually met with disdain. I have attended 8 or 10 different churches without really feeling like I fit anywhere. But I am encouraged to know that this was the path God carved out for me and as long as I am where He wants me to be then I will be fine. Not every day can be a day surrounded by friends and I am certain that at the end of my journey through school I will be able to understand more fully the lessons that He is teaching me through these struggles. For now, I have found a church that I believe teaches the solid word of God and even though I don’t feel like I really fit in, I know that I will able to be encouraged through solid teaching each week. I will continue to try to reach out to my roommates, and classmates, and try to remember that it is not me they don’t like, it is my unwillingness to buy into the lies of the world.
Coming up…
I am so excited that in 2 ½ weeks I will have completely finished my first semester of grad school. My last final is on December 18th and I will most likely stick around Philly for a few days to take care of things that have been neglected for the last six months (like the two foot tall stack of unopened mail) and to pack up everything I will need for the next month. I will be spending Christmas back at home in Pittsburgh and then I will be traveling back to North Carolina to spend some time relaxing, catching up with friends, and seeking out opportunities to do some of my rotations there in the spring of ’09. Most importantly I will be going down for the birth of my friend Sara’s first baby.
Next semester will come quickly and will be even more challenging than the first. I’m excited that we’ll be planning and scheduling year two of clinical rotations and look forward to putting “it all” together and in to practice.
Well, that’s about it. I know it was a long letter, but it’s been a long 4 months. I appreciate the emails and phone calls more than you’ll ever know and encourage you to keep ‘em coming! :o)- The days I get emails or phone calls are so much brighter.
For those of you in North Carolina, I look forward to seeing you soon and for everyone else, I wish you the best Christmas full of blessings!
Love,
Stephanie
.
November 30, 2007
August 22, 2007
Today I held a human brain.
Let me back up a bit. This letter is long overdue but, as I am told, better late than never. I have now been in Philadelphia for six weeks and have only recently started to feel like I could call this home (at least for the next two years). To be quite honest, the last six weeks have been extremely difficult. Each week has held its own challenges, some of which I have met head on and some of which I have, unfortunately, shied away from.
The first week I was here was filled with moving in, unpacking, and trying to get settled. After the chaos of the actual move I went on a much needed vacation to Chautauqua, NY with my family for about five days and it was a great time of relaxation before school started.
My second week in Philly consisted of orientation and more unpacking. We were able to meet each other, meet all of the professors, get student I.D. cards, and spend an unexpected $700 on “equipment” that they forgot to tell us about (oops!).
My third week was the start of classes. At that point, however, we only started Advanced Anatomy. The program has us take four weeks of intense Anatomy to get a large amount of the work out of the way before all the other classes start. So, for the last four weeks we have had Anatomy each day with lecture in the morning and dissection lab in the afternoon. My first day of dissection had me a little bit nervous. I had dissected cats and stuff in undergrad but nothing like this. We were briefed on what to expect and what was expected of us with a particular reminder to back away from the tables and take a seat if we felt dizzy. All 45 of us marched in together and opened our boxes for the big reveal. For the next 30 minutes I stood silently holding on to the edge of the table as I swayed back and forth, sweat dripping from my forehead, trying not to pass out. I pushed through it and persevered and haven’t had a problem since.
The end of week four brought our first round of Anatomy exams. For two weeks straight it felt like all we had done was go to class and lab and then come home at night and studied until bedtime. I went into the exam feeling pretty good and came out of it wanting to cry. It was the hardest exam I had ever taken (including the GRE’s) and I did poorly on it. We had been warned that we probably wouldn’t do well on the first exam but not to worry because everyone always did better after that. But I have never had trouble doing well on exams as long as I studied for them…until now. I was extremely discouraged to say the least and had a really hard time getting back in gear to continue with classes and getting ready for the next exam (just 11 days later). That night a good number of us from the class went to a Phillies game and it was great to get away from school and spend some time just having fun.
Week five brought the end of the honeymoon period with my roommates. All the initial politeness wore off and, after many frustrating conversations, I actually came to an impasse with one of my roomies about overnight male guests and the use of our bathroom (you have to go through my bedroom to get to the bathroom). Fortunately she didn’t foresee encountering the situation very often. I also got an unexpected visit from James who was in Philly on business and it was great to see a Raleigh friend even if only for a short dinner. For the rest of the week I continued studying in preparation for the next exam and looked forward to a visit from my parents that weekend.
And finally week six…this week. My parents left Sunday afternoon after a very much needed and much too short visit and I went back to studying. We had our second round of exams on Tuesday and I am happy to report that they went MUCH better. We still don’t have our grades but everything was much smoother and I feel a lot better this time. This week also marks the end of our month of Anatomy and all of our other classes will begin this coming Monday morning. We will still have Anatomy, but only once a week.
We had opened the skull on Monday afternoon but today we removed the brain and I held it in my hands. It was a bit surreal.
And now to answer a few questions:
How are those roomies?
My roommates are both really nice. For the most part we get along really well though there is a clear difference in lifestyle. The two of them, both not being Christians, get along really well and go out together a lot which can, at times, leave me feeling a little “estranged” but such is life.
Are there any other Christians in the program?
In fact there are. Not very many though. There are three of us for sure. One girl, Sharon, lives at home with her parents about 20 minuets away. The other girl, Elissa, lives in my apartment complex and is newly married (one week before orientation). Elissa actually grew up and went to college about 45 minutes north of where I grew up in Pittsburgh. Other than that there is one other girl who goes to church with us and is a believer but definitely doesn’t “walk the walk”.
Are you making many friends?
This has probably been the hardest part about being here. It has been admittedly difficult feeling like I fit in. Most of the people in the program who aren’t married spend most of their free time going to bars and getting drunk, something that doesn’t really interest me. I have been able to spend some time with Elissa and Sharon this week which has been really great and a refreshing change from feeling like such an outsider with my roommates. It continues to be a daily struggle.
How about the apartment?
Our apartment is unbelievably huge. It’s actually bigger than my parents’ new house. It took a while to get used to living in an “old city apartment” but now that I’m unpacked and everything is set up it’s slowly growing on me.
I can’t think of much more. This letter has been a long time coming but this is really the first time I have felt like I had enough time to stop and breathe long enough to write something that made any sense.
I miss you all terribly and your emails and phone calls have been invaluable to me. Please continue to write and call as often as possible.
Love much,
Stephanie
p.s. I have a new imac account and am trying to set up a “webpage” but I’m pretty technologically stupid. I’ll let you know if and when I get it up.
Let me back up a bit. This letter is long overdue but, as I am told, better late than never. I have now been in Philadelphia for six weeks and have only recently started to feel like I could call this home (at least for the next two years). To be quite honest, the last six weeks have been extremely difficult. Each week has held its own challenges, some of which I have met head on and some of which I have, unfortunately, shied away from.
The first week I was here was filled with moving in, unpacking, and trying to get settled. After the chaos of the actual move I went on a much needed vacation to Chautauqua, NY with my family for about five days and it was a great time of relaxation before school started.
My second week in Philly consisted of orientation and more unpacking. We were able to meet each other, meet all of the professors, get student I.D. cards, and spend an unexpected $700 on “equipment” that they forgot to tell us about (oops!).
My third week was the start of classes. At that point, however, we only started Advanced Anatomy. The program has us take four weeks of intense Anatomy to get a large amount of the work out of the way before all the other classes start. So, for the last four weeks we have had Anatomy each day with lecture in the morning and dissection lab in the afternoon. My first day of dissection had me a little bit nervous. I had dissected cats and stuff in undergrad but nothing like this. We were briefed on what to expect and what was expected of us with a particular reminder to back away from the tables and take a seat if we felt dizzy. All 45 of us marched in together and opened our boxes for the big reveal. For the next 30 minutes I stood silently holding on to the edge of the table as I swayed back and forth, sweat dripping from my forehead, trying not to pass out. I pushed through it and persevered and haven’t had a problem since.
The end of week four brought our first round of Anatomy exams. For two weeks straight it felt like all we had done was go to class and lab and then come home at night and studied until bedtime. I went into the exam feeling pretty good and came out of it wanting to cry. It was the hardest exam I had ever taken (including the GRE’s) and I did poorly on it. We had been warned that we probably wouldn’t do well on the first exam but not to worry because everyone always did better after that. But I have never had trouble doing well on exams as long as I studied for them…until now. I was extremely discouraged to say the least and had a really hard time getting back in gear to continue with classes and getting ready for the next exam (just 11 days later). That night a good number of us from the class went to a Phillies game and it was great to get away from school and spend some time just having fun.
Week five brought the end of the honeymoon period with my roommates. All the initial politeness wore off and, after many frustrating conversations, I actually came to an impasse with one of my roomies about overnight male guests and the use of our bathroom (you have to go through my bedroom to get to the bathroom). Fortunately she didn’t foresee encountering the situation very often. I also got an unexpected visit from James who was in Philly on business and it was great to see a Raleigh friend even if only for a short dinner. For the rest of the week I continued studying in preparation for the next exam and looked forward to a visit from my parents that weekend.
And finally week six…this week. My parents left Sunday afternoon after a very much needed and much too short visit and I went back to studying. We had our second round of exams on Tuesday and I am happy to report that they went MUCH better. We still don’t have our grades but everything was much smoother and I feel a lot better this time. This week also marks the end of our month of Anatomy and all of our other classes will begin this coming Monday morning. We will still have Anatomy, but only once a week.
We had opened the skull on Monday afternoon but today we removed the brain and I held it in my hands. It was a bit surreal.
And now to answer a few questions:
How are those roomies?
My roommates are both really nice. For the most part we get along really well though there is a clear difference in lifestyle. The two of them, both not being Christians, get along really well and go out together a lot which can, at times, leave me feeling a little “estranged” but such is life.
Are there any other Christians in the program?
In fact there are. Not very many though. There are three of us for sure. One girl, Sharon, lives at home with her parents about 20 minuets away. The other girl, Elissa, lives in my apartment complex and is newly married (one week before orientation). Elissa actually grew up and went to college about 45 minutes north of where I grew up in Pittsburgh. Other than that there is one other girl who goes to church with us and is a believer but definitely doesn’t “walk the walk”.
Are you making many friends?
This has probably been the hardest part about being here. It has been admittedly difficult feeling like I fit in. Most of the people in the program who aren’t married spend most of their free time going to bars and getting drunk, something that doesn’t really interest me. I have been able to spend some time with Elissa and Sharon this week which has been really great and a refreshing change from feeling like such an outsider with my roommates. It continues to be a daily struggle.
How about the apartment?
Our apartment is unbelievably huge. It’s actually bigger than my parents’ new house. It took a while to get used to living in an “old city apartment” but now that I’m unpacked and everything is set up it’s slowly growing on me.
I can’t think of much more. This letter has been a long time coming but this is really the first time I have felt like I had enough time to stop and breathe long enough to write something that made any sense.
I miss you all terribly and your emails and phone calls have been invaluable to me. Please continue to write and call as often as possible.
Love much,
Stephanie
p.s. I have a new imac account and am trying to set up a “webpage” but I’m pretty technologically stupid. I’ll let you know if and when I get it up.
February 20, 2007
moving on...
so i was supposed to be a nanny for the next 5 months until i leave for grad school. i had set up with a family in durham that has 3 kids. a 16 month old, a 3 year old, and a six year old. i was really excited. the kids were super sweet (the youngest called me "my ni ni"and i was spending some time with them each week just to get to know them and for them to get to know me. then, about a week ago the mom calls me and says she doesn't think its gonna work because i am leaving in 5 months and she wants someone that can stay for at least a year. here's the deal...when i interviewed with her i told her i was only around for 5 or 6 more months and she said it was fine. at that point i dropped all the other jobs i was interviewing for or looking into. so, now i'm back at square one and down to 41/2 months until i leave. noone will hire a nanny for 4 months so i'm back to looking at corporate jobs. hopefully something will come through soon. i'm frustrated because she put me in a really difficult situation but i know God's got something planned for me and i just have to trust its better than being a nanny.
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