The beginning of the semester has been somewhat of a blur. At the beginning of each semester I wind up taking on a bunch of different projects, with an idea in mind that I'll be able to fit it all in. Usually I have a pretty good idea of how things will work, and while I usually keep myself pretty busy, I can usually fit it all in. I began the semester attempting to take five classes, study for my medical boards, work 20 hours as a research assistant on a study in the Emergency Room, TA an anatomy course at the medical school, and obviously work in the admissions office at GSE. Needless to say, it was a lot. I didn't feel like I was doing any of those things particularly well.
Studying was taking up an inordinate amount of my time, to the point where I was feeling like I was falling behind in my classes (I wasn't actually falling behind, but things just kept piling up). As I thought about it, I realized that I did not need to take the Step 2 CK (one part of the boards, in which CK stands for Clinical Knowledge), and in fact, by putting it off by a year I'd be able to devote an entire month to just studying for the exam. So I decided to put off the exam and take the weekend to catch up on all of the life things I'd been putting off for the last two week (laundry, grocery shopping, some home improvement projects etc.).
I got the opportunity to actually begin to do the reading for my classes more than the day of the class. I think the hardest part was realizing the difference between struggling with the transition back to the classroom/the organizational nightmare that is figuring out each new semester and realizing that I had actually just taken on too much. Now I'm able to do my readings, engage with them, spend time in the Emergency Room for my research project, and actually refresh my memory on the anatomy we'll be covering that day so that I can teach the first year medical students something rather than merely being there without a purpose.
I've come up with a whole bunch of things I want to accomplish this semester, trips I want to take, projects I want to complete, and personal growth I want to undergo. After last week, while I think having lofty goals are absolutely necessary, I also need to keep in mind that even the best laid plans might need some alteration.