Fall 2019 Wrap-Up!

Happy Holidays! 

I am writing this blog post from (not-so-sunny) Hawaii, as I am home to celebrate the holidays with my family! I just logged into my blog to see how many views my previous posts have gotten, and I am so overwhelmed that so many people are interested in hearing my complain about how hard grad school is. Thank you so much to everyone who has reached out to me via twitter or Instagram with such kind words of support! I cannot express how much your messages mean to me, and I always seem to get to them just when I need the pick-me-up the most. 

So, now that I am on the other side of finals week and am finished with my first semester of grad school, here is my November/December update! 

November felt like a mad dash to Thanksgiving break. With everyone trying to fit in midterms and projects before the Thanksgiving break, I definitely spent the last few days before the break just fighting off burn out. Spoiler alert! I lost that fight. I have a hard time just turning-off, not that any of my courses really left me with much of a choice. Knowing that finals week was just around the corner as soon as I was back from break kept me from really relaxing and giving myself the time to really recharge my batteries. 

I did have some time to fill my cup when I met some of my family in Las Vegas to celebrate Thanksgiving! It was just so nice to be surrounded by my family, even if it was only for a couple of days. We really packed in a lot in the short couple of days that I was in Vegas. We visited the Neon Museum, which was really cool only because I could listen to my mom, aunt, and uncle reminisce about how much Vegas has changed. I also made everyone come with me on the tour of Zak Bagans' Haunted Museum–which my mom was not happy about. Finally, we had our Thanksgiving dinner at the Wicked Spoon in The Cosmopolitan. And in true Thanksgiving fashion, we ate way too much! But, it was well worth the two hours that we waited in line. 

When I came back from Vegas, I tried to get as much work done as I could to basically get ahead of the finals week crunch time. And while I am glad that I was able to work without the pressure of a deadline looming over me, I do wish I had one extra day to just take care of myself because as soon as we came back to school, I was officially burnt out. I'm not going to lie, I was pretty depressed from a couple weeks before Thanksgiving Break, pretty much until the last day of my finals week. I could have done a better job at taking care of myself during that time, but honestly I was in survival mode. It was really hard to focus in and out of class, which was confusing because I also spent the majority of that time anxious that I was not doing enough or studying enough for finals weeks. I wish I could tell you that I snapped out of it and I took care of myself and I got better, but all I did was wait it out. Once my body and mind realized that the end was in sight, I started to feel better. I am still working on taking better care of my mental health, and progress is not linear. Knowing that my next semester will be even more challenging, I am going to try to do a better job and maintaining my mental heath and well-being.

Here are three actionable items that I plan to do to take better care of myself:

1. Schedule an appointment with me therapist every couple of weeks – even when I think I'm doing better. Text her when I am doing bad. 
2. If you're tired, sleep. Don't force your body to stay up if it's tired. 
3. Reach out to people when you're feeling isolated and lonely. 

So, now I'm done with my first semester of grad school! The last three months have been so challenging, but when I was studying for finals I realized just how much I had learned in one semester. Genetic counseling programs are so short and you are required to learn so much material that the growth is really noticeable in just a short amount of time. As much as I was just trying to get through the semester, looking back on it, I am so grateful to be in this program. It has been an incredibly validating to have gone through this semester and still come out of it loving this field and feeling passionate about genetic counseling. As much as I am anticipating next semester to be difficult, I am equally as excited about how much I will have learned by May of 2020! I am also excited to find out where I will be doing my summer clinical rotations! 

I don't start my Spring semester until the end of January, so you can expect another post before my Spring semester re-capping what I did on my extended winter break. Until then, I will be spending time with my family and friends! Happy Holidays to you and your family, and a Happy New Year! 

Cheers to being 1/5 done with grad school (if you count the summer)!