Loans, Loans, Loans!

I received my student ID number, my new MSU email account and my financial aid award today!

While I am super excited to get all of these new things, my financial award reminded me just how much debt I will be in for the next (oh lets say....) 10 years. I get to take out......

drum role please....

$74,486.00 for next year!

I probably wont take it all out, because that covers EVERYTHING plus some extra spending for first year. Since my (amazing) mom has told me she will pay for my housing for the next year, and since my (also amazing) boyfriend S is going to give me most of his books, I will need (around) $11,250 less than what is budgeted to the first year class!

Now that I have gotten my email, ID, and financial aid, the only thing left to receive is my campus placement. Hopefully that comes next week so that I can start looking for apartments!

What a great feeling though to actually get this stuff going...Its all starting to feel so real! :)

Easter!

Never too old to color Easter Eggs! :)

"The Pact"

 

This past week, I started and finished "The Pact," a book by Jodi Picoult. The story is about a teenage boy and girl (Chris Harte and Emily Gould) who have grown up together and fell in love. They were best friends from birth (Chris Harte, who was 3 months older than Emily, actually was in the delivery room during Emily's birth). Everyone around them thought they were the perfect couple--both great students and both with promising futures. However, Emily was severly depressed and decided to take her own life. Chris didn't know what to do, but tried to convince her that killing herself was not the only to solve her problems. Chris failed and Emily wound up dead. Since Chris and Emily were the only two people at the location of her death, despite his story about her being suicidal, Chris was arrested and had to wait out a trial to determine if he would be found guilty of first degree murder of his beloved Emily Gould. I wont talk about the ending or give too many specifics, in case anyone else wants to read the book, but I'll just say there is lots of twists and turns that made me easily finish this 500 page book within a week's time!


My friend Natalya and I have decided to start a Jodi Picoult book club, since she has been a J.P. reader for many years now. I am not sure what my next book will be quite yet, but I am thinking either "Nineteen Minutes" or "Change of Heart."

Scrapbooking Challenge, Day #1

For the last few years, I have been wanting to start a "college" scrapbook, but I really haven't had the time or money to devote to actually doing it. I took my first scrapbooking class when I was about 10 years old and have loved it ever since. I made a scrapbook for S for Christmas two years ago, but haven't worked on pages for myself in a VERY long time. All of you scrapbookers out there know this, but for those who don't...this hobby is quite expensive! However,  I know that the cost of scrapbooking supplies isn't going to get any cheaper and if I don't start/finish this project in the next few months, I probably won't ever do it. So, today was the day that I started. I went to Michael's Craft Store with a budget of $100. Since I didn't buy an actual album today, I collected lettered stickers, scrapbooking paper, and cute embellishments. I ended up spending $92. So, yay for staying under my budget, even though I still went a little crazy and bought way too much stuff!

So far I have the following pages planned:

-"Back to school" (first year/dorm pictures)
-"Football" (UCLA pride pictures)
-"Day at the beach"
-"Halloween" (Hello, Santa Barbara freshman year!)
-"Christmas" ( P*Possy decorating a random tree on campus for Christmas)
-"Saint Pattys Day" (DSP's Dublin!)
-"Mexico" (yay Frat Date Parties)
-"The Netherlands" --that gets two pages! :)
-"Italy"
-"Germany" (Oktoberfest!)
-"England/Scotland"
-"Paris" (and Paris Disney!)
-"Spain"
-"Washington D.C."
-"Honduras"
-"UCLA Unicamp"
-"Party Time" --that also gets two pages haha
-"Las Vegas"
-"Graduation"

I'm making a goal of finishing this project in 30 days. On my second blog post, I made a list of things that I wanted to get completed before I left for school in August. The first on my to-do list was to "do a 30-day blog challenge". However, I can't find any that I really want to do, so I'm changing that 30-day blog challenge to a 30-day scrapbooking challenge! I will post pictures as soon as I have some of my pages completed, so stay tuned. :)

Busy Worker Bee!

I have had such a crazy work week! I technically have three jobs right now, but am really only focusing on two. I work at the Cosumnes Community Services District in the Aquatics Department and I work at Elk Grove High School as the Drill Team Coach. Normally, I have a pretty set work schedule, which is enough to keep me busy, but not too much to make me go crazy. Well, that has definitely changed! This last week, I worked six days, with three of those being 14-hour days. Right now at the CCSD, I am teaching American Red Cross Lifeguarding, First Aide, and CPR/AED classes. Its a lot of hours, but great money and its really fun! I actually really love what I'm doing right now. Stay tuned to see if I continue with this enthusiasm in a few weeks after class #4.

On another note...Today is Friday, and like I mentioned a few posts before, Fridays are my lazy days. So, today I have devoted my day to starting my "college" scrapbook and to watch the movie "Tangled". I LOVE Tangled. I saw it in theaters when it first came out, but have been stalking the red box machine by my house for the past week to rent it on DVD! Well, I finally was able to track down a copy this morning and have already watched it once and I'm about to watch it again. :)

My favorite part of the entire movie:

Best Disney song ever. So cute.


In final news, I was just sent my FORMAL acceptance by CHM today! For those of you who don't know, when you are accepted to medical school, you must first be offered "conditional acceptance." Then, you have to fill out a whole bunch of forms, send in a deposit, and pass a Criminal Background Check. Well, luckily I passed (I know, I know, I was really worried too...just kidding). So, now Im officially in! Now, its time to fill out endless scholarship applications and figure out a way to pay the huge price tag this is attached to medical school.

Biking Along the American River!

Today I went on a 10-mile bike ride along the American River with my step-dad, Sam. It was so nice! My mom, Sam, and I used to go on family bike rides when I was younger, but we haven't gone on one in several years. I told my parents that I wanted to see more of Sacramento (like I mentioned in my last blog entry), so they suggested I go along this bike path. Im so glad I did! It was such a beautiful day and such a beautiful trail!

Here are some pictures:

(this turkey ran right across the bike trail! I almost hit him!)

Such a great day... I definitely plan on going along this trail again over the next few months! :)

Happy Friday!

I love Fridays! Despite having to be awake at 5 AM to get to Elk Grove High School for Drill Team practice by 6, I end my work day by 8 AM and have the rest of the day for myself. Its fabulous. Normally when I get off work, I go straight to my computer and read Student Doctor Network posts for about 5 hours, but for the first time in a long time, I came home and didn't have anything to do!

I know I will be ridiculously busy with school starting in August so I plan on relishing in these lazy days as much as I possibly can over the next few months. However, I know I will get bored and will need something to focus on. So, I have come up with the following things that I would like to get accomplished before I start school:

1) Do a 30-day blog challenge
2) Exercise at least 6 times per week & continue to learn how to cook cheap/healthy meals
3) Watch the entire series of "Sex and the City" (again--shout out to my Roebling apartment)
4) Finish reading "Eat, Pray, Love"
5) Read two more books for fun (most likely Nicholas Sparks books, but still looking for suggestions)
6) Explore Sacramento (I have lived here my whole life and don't really appreciate it. I want to get out there and see everything that this city has to offer!)
7) Come up with a solid budget ( I will be very very very poor for the next few years)

I'm hoping that actually writing down this list will keep me accountable for completing these tasks, but I guess we will see in August.

Happy Friday, everybody!

Accepted!

After nearly 9 months of applying to medical school, my spirits were pretty beaten down about this application cycle. I spent over $5,000 on applications and interviews and was left in the dark by most schools. While I am very happy with my year off and was ok with spending another year working, I couldn't fathom the possibility of having to re-take the MCAT and paying another $5,000 on applications.

For those of you who don't know, my boyfriend S is a second year at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine (CHM). After spending the last two years in a long distance relationship, I would have given an arm or leg to get accepted anywhere close to him.

When I received an invitation to interview at CHM, I was completely shocked. Although I knew it was still a long shot to get accepted even after an interview, I was amazed that I had been selected to go this far. At interview day, I was completely blown away by the faculty and students. I felt like the staff genuinely cared about their students success (more so than other schools I interviewed at) and I became even more eager to attend.

A short two weeks after my interview at CHM, I received a life-changing phone call. It was from Dr. Mowry, the Assistant Dean of Admissions at Michigan State. He called to congratulate me on my acceptance to medical school! I was in such shock but immediately called my mom and S. With lots of happy screams, I knew that I had finally done it. I was on my way to getting it all.

Some people think that you have to choose between love and a dream career. I have often caught myself believing in this as well. But, now that I have been accepted to my dream medical program and can relocate closer to my love, I hope I will prove that you can in fact have it all. :)