Travels to the Lonely Mountain

For well over a fortnight now I have hoped for that friendly nip in the weather which would welcome the reemergence of autumnal attire. Today consisted of a truly lovely palette of grays in the overcast sky accompanied with a gentle, persistent glacial kiss of a breeze making it prime weather for my wonderful, green coat. It was beautiful. Fall has finally arrived, and it isn't going to bite me in the face with the frigid slaps of a nearly frozen rain. I shall thoroughly enjoy, and hopefully embrace the beauty of this new season.

Switching gears:

Today in Phlebotomy, I performed my first venipuncture on a living arm. The previous week consisted of practicing our technique on 'cold' arms. These are arms with a venous system that have a red, water-like substance, which would fill the vacutainer if the venipuncture was performed correctly. In essence, it is like practicing on a dummy with 'blood' in it. Anyhow, today I got to perform my stick on a sweet, Russian student in the class, and am proud to say that it was successful. [1 down, 11 more to go.] I also have my marks from where she practiced on me, and am pleased to say that my veins are quite adequate for blood draws. Afterward we were given the opportunity to make blood smears from our own blood. This too was exciting, but I shan't bore you with the details.

Following this invigorating lab session, I had to immediately dismiss myself for a dental appointment which would harbor the most unfortunate news. Upon looking at my x-rays [which I had for a long time avoided], the hygienist informed me of a slight shadow on one of my back teeth. This was an indication of a possible cavity. The dentist only confirmed this most distressing information. It has finally happened, something I had worked so long and so hard to avoid, a cavity. Twenty-one years I have been able to maintain a perfect record, and now the record is shattered due to one shadow on an x-ray. I am not devastated, merely disappointed...

This 29th of September has proven to be quite an adventure, filled with victories and losses. Tomorrow shall be a new day, and one that will hopefully hold another dragon for me to slay. Until next time, try to embrace your days as though they were as exciting as the most enchanting adventure.

School and stuff:

Evidently, I am quite bad at keeping this up. I will, in the future, try to make a point to blog at least once a week. We'll see how that goes.

As of late, life is finally settling into a rhythm once again. School is going quickly, just today I realized that this week I will have been in school for 1 month. It's crazy, because here I am learning the scientific material from a clinical perspective and well on my way to attaining my dream vocation. It's still intimidating from time-to-time just trying to wrap my mind around all the things I will need to learn, but the professors are quite encouraging. I am almost forced into a constant in between state of mild panic and followed by reassurance and peace. To think of all the different aspects and that I may directly/indirectly a patients life puts me a little on edge. But at the same time I need to remind myself that all of the graduates from this program are very well equipped for the field... so yeah... Here I will remain...

That's all for now... sorry, lame blog, I know...

Thought from my witty calendar: "To err is human, to blame it on someone else is more human."

I feel an Autumnal Equinox coming up...

Yes, that's right, autumn is just around the corner. It became evident yesterday as it was quite a bit chillier in the morning and the remainder of the day contained a tinge of coolness despite the comfortable temperature. Even more so, this morning I decided to chance wearing a sweater and proved not to be disappointed when I stepped outside and was greeted by the refreshing cool air. It will be nice to actually experience autumn weather for the first time in three years. I am quite looking forward to it. Perhaps I shall even make a point to walk through one of the local parks next to the Boise River and enjoy the multi-chromatic display which the trees are only too gracious to share with the inhabiting homo sapiens of the Treasure Valley.

As for the autumnal equinox, hopefully I will not be working on that day so that I may stand in the middle of the street, face west, and watch the sun set perfectly over the road. Perhaps I should even take a photo and display it on this interweb page, for the chances are in my favor that it shall be a beautiful sunset as well.

That is all for now. School is busy and life is good.

And the consensus is:

that most of the students don't actually like how the classes are set up, meaning that they don't like all the cameras, microphones and screens. I found this to be quite interesting, not that I mind. I myself am not too sure about all of this either, but for the year there's not that much I can do about it. It is what it is.

In other news, I made a rather startling realization, which took me all to long to notice in the first place. All of my professors are female. This in and of itself is not all that significant, but you must understand that there are absolutely no female professors in the sciences at Dordt College, and now I have nothing but female science professors. It actually makes me feel a little empowered.

What's more is that apparently the CLS professors are more relaxed about titles and we are allowed and encouraged to call them each by their first names. Amazing, huh?! It puts a more personal spin on a potentially non-personal classroom set up. It also helps that each of the professors are making themselves quite easily approachable, which is a really big thing for me.

The other wonderful thing, especially about one of my professors (who also is the director of the program), is that they truly want all of us to succeed. Sonja has expressed time and again her willingness to help us through all of the material. She realizes that there is quite a vast body of knowledge for each of us to learn in this upcoming year, but encourages us to continually stick with the material and that hopefully toward the end of the year it will all finally make sense. She also encourages us to remain patient with ourselves as we delve into the course work, because it may not always immediately make sense (which is true of most things I think, but encouraging to know that I won't be the only one potentially struggling with the material).

So yes, that was my little plug for the professor who is daily becoming one of my most favorite professors of all time. :)

In other news, the video I need to watch for my Microbiology course is loading rather slowly, and I hope I can watch it all tonight yet. On the bright side, at least I get Labor Day off in order to work on all of my copious amounts of piling up homework.

Hope you are all doing well and those of you whom I know are always in my thoughts. For you Dordt students, enjoy your day at school tomorrow!