oh. my. word.

Yaaaaaaaaa.  I have officially survived the first week of PA school, and even though that only included one actual day of classes I still think that that is at least marginally impressive.  Let's talk about what we learned this week.  A good deal of the time was filled with alternating messages of "you guys have already gotten so far, you are amazing!!" to "whooooaaaaa.  you will probably at least partially die within the next two years both physically and mentally, don't pat your backs too hard now!".  I think that I experienced every possible gradient of emotion on the first day alone, in which I felt filled with hope and equally filled with both terror and trepidation.  We learned a lot of the boring but necessary stuff about sexual harassment policies, HIPPA rules, managing stress, how to use the library, the student handbook, academic expectations, using AMA writing style.... you get the picture.  I'm glad that portion is over, but looking into next week is already pretty intimidating!  I made the mistake of opening the different syllabi for the myriad of classes we have this summer and my eyes almost popped out when I realized that we will probably have between 50-100 pages of textbook to read each day before each class, which will quickly multiply.  While I am not sure if that is physically possible, I am now mentally thanking my parents for their early encouragement of reading that led to my ability to read pretty quickly.   HA, those who laughed at us when we were having fast reading competitions as children with the Sevin family on vacations can laugh no more!  I will soon become an expert at scanning for relevant info and cramming it into my brain. 

Now it wasn't all administration stuff, we did some cool things too!  I saw my first (and second!) cadaver, and they were fascinating!  If it wasn't a class c felony to bring unauthorized individuals into the lab I would offer to bring you all with me.  Gross anatomy is going to be a very different experience than my last anatomy when we dissected cats and pigs, and I am excited to learn on actual bodies!  I have also started making some friends, and every one of my classmates seems great.  We have a slightly older class than many (average age is 27), and there are so many varying experiences that everyone brings with them.  I am excited to learn with a group of people from such diverse backgrounds.  As with probably most graduate level programs, it is really a great feeling to be surrounded by people who are interested in learning, and are so committed and dedicated.  In undergrad it was such a different group of people, and levels of effort were so varied.  In any case, week one is complete!  It is going to be a wild two years, but I am just going to try take it just one day at a time so I won't get overwhelmed by the entire thing.  Wish me luck!