Posting because I don't anymore
And because my wisdom teeth are pulled and my face looks like a fugu.
So I'm nearing the tail end of my summer break up in Canada again, and quite a bit has happened. Mostly more private than I feel comfortable discussing on a public LJ post, but I can just say that Anime North weekend was one of the most bittersweet, yet totally awesome weekends of my life. Learned a lot about myself, and learned to let go of a few preconceptions I had about myself.
Money, as ever, is a big concern in the months to come, but for now at least I have enough to finish the year, so I'm gonna focus on that, and try to get OSAP ASAP.
I think I've gotten to the point where I'm finally burning out about school. I'm twenty-four, and I've only had one year off of school in the last twenty-two years. And I have three more years of very expensive formal education left, then I can finally start making money. Five years later than the average reasonable graduate. I'd just like to have a job with regular hours and enjoy the waning days of my youth with my own apartment and car and a reasonable about of debt to manage. Alas that is not the hand I've been dealt.
Can't stop me from wishing though, sigh.
I'm currently reading The House of God by Samuel Shem; frequently hailed as the medical-themed answer to CATCH-22 (which, as a ridiculous aside, is also how one remembers the symptomatology of DiGeorge's Syndrome...)
C-Cardiac Abnormality (Tetralogy of Fallot malformation most commonly)
A-Abnormal Facies
T-Thymic aplasia
C-Cleft Palate
H-Hypocalcemia
22 Chromosome 22 q11.2 deletion
Back to the book... it's an interesting book. Set in the seventies, it's full of post-Civil Rights Movement not-quite-PC-but-I'm-kind-of-trying racism, outdated medicine (nothing you can do for a cirrhotic liver? Nothing? No organ donors out there? Nope~!) and still-used terms such as "gomer" (Get Out of My ER) used to refer to aging patients, often senile or getting there, who are at the hospital very frequently, but are rarely in life-threatening shape... not particularly nice, but neither is medicine...). The book is full of what I've come to accept as a growing fact: medical internships yank out your soul, wipe their asses on it, and spit on it before handing it back to you. You go in idealistic, wide-eyed, optimistic, intending to change the world, and you come out grim, bitter, a prescription-writing machine.
Everyone says they'll be different, but I'm actually starting to wonder.
The only other thing I think I'll address in this long-overdue update on my state of being is the insane level of attrition at SGU. I'm seeing it first-hand nowadays. People are dropped left and right. For example, if one has a poor first-term grades, they're automatically put on the school's shit list. Mess up one more midterm and they're "Encouraged to Leave". If they withdraw, it doesn't look as bad on their transcripts, not on SGU's annual reports as it would if they straight-up failed out. I've lost quite a few friends, personally to this system already. It's eerie. It wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the time investment, and significant financial commitment it's taking the kids to be there in the first place. Decelling is nearly as bad (when they hold you back a semester because you haven't learned the info satisfactorily)... You don't have to pay twice, but you lose half a year of your life.
I was very, very close to having a breakdown last term around finals season. I'd fudged up some midterms, and so I went into the finals with weak grades (luckily they did a 180 and ended up nice and high; a whole grade-point higher, oo-rah), and I'd just lost quite a few friends to the school's attrition horror-situation, so that was fresh in my mind. I haven't known such lingering, visceral terror in my life.
On that happy note, I have to tend to my swollen blimp-face with some salt water rinse and eagerly await tonight's True Blood stream's arrival online.
So I'm nearing the tail end of my summer break up in Canada again, and quite a bit has happened. Mostly more private than I feel comfortable discussing on a public LJ post, but I can just say that Anime North weekend was one of the most bittersweet, yet totally awesome weekends of my life. Learned a lot about myself, and learned to let go of a few preconceptions I had about myself.
Money, as ever, is a big concern in the months to come, but for now at least I have enough to finish the year, so I'm gonna focus on that, and try to get OSAP ASAP.
I think I've gotten to the point where I'm finally burning out about school. I'm twenty-four, and I've only had one year off of school in the last twenty-two years. And I have three more years of very expensive formal education left, then I can finally start making money. Five years later than the average reasonable graduate. I'd just like to have a job with regular hours and enjoy the waning days of my youth with my own apartment and car and a reasonable about of debt to manage. Alas that is not the hand I've been dealt.
Can't stop me from wishing though, sigh.
I'm currently reading The House of God by Samuel Shem; frequently hailed as the medical-themed answer to CATCH-22 (which, as a ridiculous aside, is also how one remembers the symptomatology of DiGeorge's Syndrome...)
C-Cardiac Abnormality (Tetralogy of Fallot malformation most commonly)
A-Abnormal Facies
T-Thymic aplasia
C-Cleft Palate
H-Hypocalcemia
22 Chromosome 22 q11.2 deletion
Back to the book... it's an interesting book. Set in the seventies, it's full of post-Civil Rights Movement not-quite-PC-but-I'm-kind-of-trying racism, outdated medicine (nothing you can do for a cirrhotic liver? Nothing? No organ donors out there? Nope~!) and still-used terms such as "gomer" (Get Out of My ER) used to refer to aging patients, often senile or getting there, who are at the hospital very frequently, but are rarely in life-threatening shape... not particularly nice, but neither is medicine...). The book is full of what I've come to accept as a growing fact: medical internships yank out your soul, wipe their asses on it, and spit on it before handing it back to you. You go in idealistic, wide-eyed, optimistic, intending to change the world, and you come out grim, bitter, a prescription-writing machine.
Everyone says they'll be different, but I'm actually starting to wonder.
The only other thing I think I'll address in this long-overdue update on my state of being is the insane level of attrition at SGU. I'm seeing it first-hand nowadays. People are dropped left and right. For example, if one has a poor first-term grades, they're automatically put on the school's shit list. Mess up one more midterm and they're "Encouraged to Leave". If they withdraw, it doesn't look as bad on their transcripts, not on SGU's annual reports as it would if they straight-up failed out. I've lost quite a few friends, personally to this system already. It's eerie. It wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the time investment, and significant financial commitment it's taking the kids to be there in the first place. Decelling is nearly as bad (when they hold you back a semester because you haven't learned the info satisfactorily)... You don't have to pay twice, but you lose half a year of your life.
I was very, very close to having a breakdown last term around finals season. I'd fudged up some midterms, and so I went into the finals with weak grades (luckily they did a 180 and ended up nice and high; a whole grade-point higher, oo-rah), and I'd just lost quite a few friends to the school's attrition horror-situation, so that was fresh in my mind. I haven't known such lingering, visceral terror in my life.
On that happy note, I have to tend to my swollen blimp-face with some salt water rinse and eagerly await tonight's True Blood stream's arrival online.