Tick-tock

It seems that I blinked and suddenly second-year is half over. Wow. Christmas and third-year will be here soon, and I am very excited about spending all of my time doing clinical work, but not so excited about leaving my jeans and t-shirts at home. I'm a happy dag. 

This year I have learned a lot, both scholastically and personally. The best thing that I have done so far is get into meditation and learn some perspective. Suddenly, exams aren't the be-all and end-all, they are just another hurdle to get out of the way and a slot to fill in in my diary. It is quite a refreshing change of view, and was quite a challenge to test it out recently!

I am getting to the age where I can tell how much time has passed by looking at how much the young children of friends and family have grown since I saw them last. At one recent party, I initially thought that a one-year-old was her older sister, as I hadn't seen any of them in over a year and the sibling resemblance was very strong! It was a confusing moment. :)

I am very much looking forward to earning money again and working as an intern, but in the meantime I think I will hang around in my jeans and t-shirt for a little while longer and enjoy the luxury of full-time study.

For everything else . . .

Climbing into a warm bed at the end of a hard day of study: precious.

Doing 20 minutes of guided relaxation to help switch off your brain: valuable.

Two minutes of dozing: lovely.

The sound of the cat throwing up his entire dinner (and then some) on the hallway carpet just outside the bedroom: inevitable, really.

Your half-asleep husband complaining and asking you when you are finally coming to bed and turning the lights off, while you are on your knees in the hallway cleaning cat puke out of the carpet: priceless.  

Thank the gods for the ability to laugh at life. :)

Random notes on revision and stuff

When you revise your notes and study for an exam, you realise which note compilations work, and which don't. Most of mine don't. When I write things down, I tend to be verbose and include lots of little details, which is how I think about things and learn. 

The down-side of this is that the notes aren't so good for revision, but the up-side is that I generally know the notes well enough to use diagrams and other sets of notes/books instead.

Have I mentioned that I am now 99% sure about the specialty that I want to pursue when I graduate? From the links to the right, it should be obvious. Looking back, it should have been clear all along. The nice thing is that the further I get, the more certain I am.  :)