It's the new year, 2015 and WE MADE IT THROUGH THE FIRST SEMESTER! From my perspective it was a great semester because it feels like Jason managed a healthy balance of lectures, study time, shadowing at the hospital and socializing with classmates and professors. Not to mention he got all "P"s (Pass!). Here's what it looked like for us, keep in mind, each school is different and depending on you and your med school spouse you should have room to shape the semester to best fit your lifestyle. Make it your own!
Lectures for Jason were 8am - 12pm, Monday through Friday. A lot of lectures (if not all) are recorded and posted on line which gives him freedom to choose a bit of his own schedule. He came to find that listening to them online produced better note taking because he could pause or rewind as needed. But this also means that it doubles the time it takes him to get through a lecture so he has to be strategic about skipping class. He would normally skip certain lectures to get in extra study time if he had an exam coming up or to catch up on sleep.
Study time is dependent on the personality of the medical student. For example, Jason studies best late afternoon through to however late he can stay up (usually between 12am - 2am). He studies other times too but he does better if he takes a nap after lunch or late afternoon, studies for a bit, eats dinner then picks up the books again. He also studies better by himself verses in a study group. He went to study groups this past semester but only before major exams. This routine actually makes it tough for me because I can't stay up as late as he does, I have to leave for work by 6:45am and can't function on such little sleep. It takes sacrifice on both our parts to make this work for our relationship, I'll be honest, it's been tough but it's not so much a medical school struggle as much as it is a "Jason and Sarah" struggle. It was tough even before med school.
Shadowing in the hospital depends on each individual class requirements. Most classes this semester didn't call for shadowing which means Jason had a lot of room to choose when and where to shadow. Outside of mandatory times, it's predominantly on a volunteer basis. And prearranged shadowing was very loose, he just had to show he was there. Family Medicine was the class that had the most shadowing "requirements" (again, very loose). I believe this is one reason why the students are required to get their white coats and medical tools within the first month of starting school. Plus they start practicing basic patient interviewing (the students roll play in class). Did I mention that Jason chose a highlighter yellow stethoscope?! So far he hasn't met anyone else who picked this color and it makes him happy, he is super unique and that's why I love him!
Then there's social events, my favorite! I really enjoy the way the social events are structured. For Jason's program they break up into "colleges" of about 30-40 students that include students from all 4 years, not just first year students. Each college has a number of mandatory events they must plan and for every student that attends they get points. At the end of the year, the college with the most points wins. I asked Jason what the prize is but he didn't know because his college just wants winner's bragging rights. That's just like him, he is competitive but isn't usually motivated by a prize.....UPDATE (August 2015) his College won the challenge but he still can't tell me what the prize was because I really don't think there was one ...... So, we attended three events, the first one was during the week of orientation, a "cookout" that consisted of Mediterranean food outside at a park (hence "cookout"). In November we went to a "bonfire" that was really a camp fire size (hence "bonfire") where we roasted smores and little sausages but had a great time. Ironically, the temperature dropped to below freezing that night and as we huddled over the small fire someone asked the question, "what can you have too much of that won't kill you?" Everyone chimed in trying to think of something but I don't remember if we arrived at an answer .... any idea?
The last social event we attended was at one of his professor's house for dinner the last week of class. The students who came are all a part of a small group assigned by the school to meet and talk about certain lectures. This group should stay the same through the rest of the year which means I might be seeing them a lot more. I'm looking forward to that since I connected with a few girls and I will enjoy getting to know them better.
At most events there's always a part of the night that I find myself mostly listening and observing. I jump in on the conversation when I can, but the conversation can quickly turn to the last exam they had or outrageous story told in class or an upcoming lecture. I just let it happen, I don't try to force my way into the conversation or change the topic because a lot of the time I get helpful information about Jason's schedule, the next round of lectures, what his classmates think of him or I hear about interesting and new medical discoveries! Some events it isn't necessary for me to be involved at all so just Jason goes. These came up spontaneously with professors who are interested in getting to know the students. For example, Jason told me one professor in particular bought them drinks after lecture one day, that would have been odd for me to be there...
Last but not least, there's a few students Jason and I have connected with on our own and we have gotten together for dinner and games, we toured a vineyard, some came over to hand out candy on Halloween night and we've gone to dinner at great local restaurants. These are the people and the times I relate to the most because it's people I feel we would have befriended even outside of Med School. He has some great classmates and I am glad for the chance to get to know them!
The next social event coming up is this month, it's a formal dance and it has been dubbed "prom". I'm not sure what to expect but I'm planning to post about the evening! ..... UPDATE: we didn't end up going since Jason's parents were visiting from out of town so we decided to spend time with them instead.
So, what about down time? This has not been easy for us because we have opposite personalities and interests. We managed to scrape by this past semester but we are in the process of experimenting what this will look like going forward. One thing we know we need is flexibility, patience and trust. Right now I don't have a lot of insight on this because we have only just begun to devote time to think this through but I anticipate sharing with you what we have discovered and how it hopefully will make a difference! Stay tuned!
In case you are interested in the bright yellow stethoscope, here is the one Jason bought:
3M Littmann Cardiology III Smoke Finish Lemon Lime Stethoscope
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