August 2013, in which things finally begin to go well for once.
Two weeks of CMA school down. It's going well so far. I successfully tested out of the stupid computer class, thank goodness, so I now have six classes rather than seven, and my Mondays and Wednesdays now end at 3:10pm instead of 7:30pm. Biology is easier than I thought it would be so far...but the first exam is this upcoming Wednesday, so we'll see if my opinion changes. Math is stupidly easy. I've already done the first three chapters' worth of homework. My medical classes are okay so far. Lots of homework, but none of it is too challenging. The challenge will come next semester, when we start doing hands-on clinical stuff. My most challenging class this semester is going to be medical terminology. It's like learning a foreign language that makes sense most of the time, but occasionally throws you an absolutely baffling curveball. And there's so bloody much of it. Flashcards, here I come.
Attending community college after university is a fascinating experience, and one that I'm actually enjoying immensely. My classmates range in age from 18 to late 50s, come from all walks of life, and have all levels of education. Everyone has something unique to bring to the class dialogue, and everyone wants to be there. This is so markedly different from my undergrad experience, which featured classrooms full of people roughly my age, from roughly my own socioeconomic background, and who were there, by and large, because college is what one does after high school. They brought in minimal meaningful life experience and a fledgling level of independent thought that was only really being tested for the first time. Whereas the people in my CMA program have so many different life experiences to draw upon and so many opinions to voice that the classroom volume has risen to fever pitch more than once already. It's INVIGORATING.
In other news...wait for it...I finally have a job. It's weekends-only, it's the second most challenging job I've ever had (next to working for Duke Hospital's version of Miranda Priestly in the summer of 2011), I'm agonizing over whether I'm truly a good fit for it, and I am terrified of screwing it up. I know, I know, be careful what you wish for because you might actually get it. I'm just hoping that I'll be able to figure it out and get some confidence in what I'm doing relatively soon, because Lord knows I need the regular pay.
Attending community college after university is a fascinating experience, and one that I'm actually enjoying immensely. My classmates range in age from 18 to late 50s, come from all walks of life, and have all levels of education. Everyone has something unique to bring to the class dialogue, and everyone wants to be there. This is so markedly different from my undergrad experience, which featured classrooms full of people roughly my age, from roughly my own socioeconomic background, and who were there, by and large, because college is what one does after high school. They brought in minimal meaningful life experience and a fledgling level of independent thought that was only really being tested for the first time. Whereas the people in my CMA program have so many different life experiences to draw upon and so many opinions to voice that the classroom volume has risen to fever pitch more than once already. It's INVIGORATING.
In other news...wait for it...I finally have a job. It's weekends-only, it's the second most challenging job I've ever had (next to working for Duke Hospital's version of Miranda Priestly in the summer of 2011), I'm agonizing over whether I'm truly a good fit for it, and I am terrified of screwing it up. I know, I know, be careful what you wish for because you might actually get it. I'm just hoping that I'll be able to figure it out and get some confidence in what I'm doing relatively soon, because Lord knows I need the regular pay.