Week ten: The countdown begins
Three weeks until I move. Four weeks until finals. Five weeks until my first semester is over. Six weeks until I turn 30.
Yes, things are creeping up on us, and we're all feeling the burn. Last night as I sat waiting for a Chinatown bus from Philly back to New York, I witnessed a guy and a girl hunched over a thick book, flipping pages and muttering to each other about "piraformis" and "ischial tuberosity" and "greater sciatic notch". Recognizing these terms, and wondering about the odds of encountering such fellow-minded folk at that moment, I made friends and found out they're first-year med students. Which explains why their book was fatter than all of mine. They were impressed that someone studying massage therapy knew about the things they were learning too, and actually asked me a question about something they were confused about (involving the greater sciatic notch, which happens to be on the pelvis) that I helped them with. Man, I felt so smart. (Also they looked seriously young -- like, 22, so that helped.)
But back to classes, where I am consistently reminded of all that I do not yet know. We've now learned 8 of the 12 meridians in Eastern class... we've learned all the components of a basic hour-long full-body massage in Swedish class and have almost finished the lessons focused on each body part specifically... we've mastered all the bones and joints in Anatomy and are 1/3 of the way through all the muscles in Myology (having finished those of the hip and leg, and currently working on trunk and arms). And this is just the beginning. Once we get these foundations down, the next step is to apply them. Next semester we will be facing Neurology as well as 2nd-level versions of Shiatsu and Swedish, and in following semesters we will take classes that teach us pathology and assessment, and how to diagnose and treat any number of problems and scenarios that clients will come to us with. As well as the continued professional development classes -- we even have a final exam on them, in fourth semester!
So it's a month till finals and now is the time when we are encouraged to really figure out what we aren't understanding so well, and dig in to get it down. There's still time, but it's a little crazy that Round One is sort of almost over. And on that note, I'm going to get back to my muscle flashcards so I can make it to Round Two. Until next time... which, if the last couple weeks are any indication, might be even shorter and sweeter than this one...
love,
b.
Yes, things are creeping up on us, and we're all feeling the burn. Last night as I sat waiting for a Chinatown bus from Philly back to New York, I witnessed a guy and a girl hunched over a thick book, flipping pages and muttering to each other about "piraformis" and "ischial tuberosity" and "greater sciatic notch". Recognizing these terms, and wondering about the odds of encountering such fellow-minded folk at that moment, I made friends and found out they're first-year med students. Which explains why their book was fatter than all of mine. They were impressed that someone studying massage therapy knew about the things they were learning too, and actually asked me a question about something they were confused about (involving the greater sciatic notch, which happens to be on the pelvis) that I helped them with. Man, I felt so smart. (Also they looked seriously young -- like, 22, so that helped.)
But back to classes, where I am consistently reminded of all that I do not yet know. We've now learned 8 of the 12 meridians in Eastern class... we've learned all the components of a basic hour-long full-body massage in Swedish class and have almost finished the lessons focused on each body part specifically... we've mastered all the bones and joints in Anatomy and are 1/3 of the way through all the muscles in Myology (having finished those of the hip and leg, and currently working on trunk and arms). And this is just the beginning. Once we get these foundations down, the next step is to apply them. Next semester we will be facing Neurology as well as 2nd-level versions of Shiatsu and Swedish, and in following semesters we will take classes that teach us pathology and assessment, and how to diagnose and treat any number of problems and scenarios that clients will come to us with. As well as the continued professional development classes -- we even have a final exam on them, in fourth semester!
So it's a month till finals and now is the time when we are encouraged to really figure out what we aren't understanding so well, and dig in to get it down. There's still time, but it's a little crazy that Round One is sort of almost over. And on that note, I'm going to get back to my muscle flashcards so I can make it to Round Two. Until next time... which, if the last couple weeks are any indication, might be even shorter and sweeter than this one...
love,
b.