I am a week late on coming up with my New Years Resolutions...but better late then never, right?
1) [Health/Food]: Learn how to cook cheap, healthy, and easy meals.
I got a cookbook many Christmases ago with a lot of meals that are designed for college students with little money and little time to devote to cooking. Although I haven't really spent much time at all looking through it, I really want to get better with cooking easy, nutritious meals. My goal is to make 50% of the recipes in the book this year! Hopefully, this will encourage me to stop eating out and stop wasting so much money on food that I could easily make myself!
2) [School Goal #1]: Master each domain.
I was very happy with how I performed in my classes last semester and hope to continue to work hard and earn above an 85% in each of the domains this semester.
3) [School Goal #2]: Pass my USMLE step 1 board exam
I am registered to take my USMLE Step 1 on June 15. *gulp*. I know that the next 6 months of my life are going to be filled with stress, little sleep and lots and lots of late-night studying, but I am hoping that it will be worth it after I see my score. In the end, I do have a goal in my mind and would like to hit that score goal. However, I will be happy if I pass with a score at or above the national average. Everyone wish me luck!
4) [School Goal #4]: Honor a clerkship.
By the end of 2013, I will have completed HALF of my clinical rotation! Crazy! My goal is to honor at least one of these first three rotations. I know that it will take a few rotations to get in the swing of things, but I hope to have at least one honor under my belt before the new year.
5) [Relationship]: Encourage S with his residency placement and adjust to his new career position.
S is graduating from medical school this year and will start his residency in General Surgery. He has had incredible interview opportunities at a ton of great programs all over the country. So, this change is mostly exciting...However, I know that there is a huge possibility that he will not end up in or around Michigan. So, based off of where he is matched, I think that this year is going to bring challenges to our relationship. These challenges definitely don't imply anything negative, but I know that they will require change. My goal is to be able to adjust to this change and continue to grow our relationship together.
6) [Personal]: Travel to a new place.
I had this resolution last year and will probably keep it for the rest of my life. Traveling is probably my greatest passion in life. I love to experience new places and see how many amazing places there are in the world.
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
A look back on 2012 Resolutions
Its that time again!...the time when I look at my New Year Resolutions from last year to see how I did!
1) [Health]: Continue to work on my exercise plan and diet.
Well...I tried. I know this resolution is by far my hardest resolution to actually follow-up on because I am a stress eater, and in med school there is lots of stress, and therefore lots of eating. I can think of two positive things that I have done this year, although much improvement is still needed. First, I started doing hot yoga and I loved it! There is something amazing about being in a hot room, stretching your body to its limits. I think its a great exercise and everytime I go, I pledge to incoporporate it into my weekly schedule. However, I get busy and stressed out, and yoga is one of the things that goes. This should change. The second thing that I have liked to do is incoporate fruit-and-veggie cleanses every few months. I have done this three times so far and find it really helpful! When I have gotten out of control with eating out and not cooking at home, making myself do a fruit-and-veggie cleans has helped me get refocused and back into the swing of cooking healthy. I hope that I will continue to remember to do this next year. I know that I need to continue to find a balance between my health and school; I plan to work on this a lot again in the new year.
2) [School Goal #1]: Improve semester average and Master each course!
Success! Normally I wouldn't want to share my grades on my blog, but I am so proud of myself that I feel like I need to. Not only have I mastered each course (which is above a 85%), the lowest grade I received on any exam for the whole semester was an 89%, finishing the semester off with a 91% average. I am pretty proud of myself to say the least! I hope to continue this trend into the next semester and give myself a confidence boost as I enter into my intensive study period for my board exams!
3) [School Goal #2]: Participate a valuable externship or research experience.
Success again! This summer, I participated in a fantastic month-long externship at St. John's Hospital, that allowed me to spend 1-week shadowing in Pediatrics, OB/Gyn, Emergency Medicine, and General Surgery. I learned so much and totally and completely reaffirmed my decision to go into medicine. I have also been doing Neonatology research for the past year and am hopefully adding a new research project soon.
4) [Relationship]: Continue to work on the balance between school and my relationship.
Also successul! [I'm on a role!]. I think this year has been so much easier because S is a 4th year and has way more time to spend time with me, even when I'm busy. There has been many times that he will come visit when I have exams and he will just sit in my study room and watch movies on his laptop while I study. I know that does not sound exciting, but for busy med students, I am thankful for the time we get together. This last semester, we even got to see each other about 3-4 times a week, which is great! I'm very happy.
5) [Friends]: Contact friends from the past.
Hrm. I'm going to say that I half-way completed this. I can't think of anyone I really contacted that I have completed lost contact with, but I think that I did do a good job visiting friends in different areas of this country. For example, I am lucky to still see my girlfriends from high school everytime I come home from break....AND, a few months ago, I went to New York City to meet up with all my old college roommates. So, I think I should keep working on this, but I am happy to say that for the friends that are important to me from high school and college, I think that I am making an effort to maintain these friendships.
6) [Self #1]: Travel to a New Place.
1) [Health]: Continue to work on my exercise plan and diet.
Well...I tried. I know this resolution is by far my hardest resolution to actually follow-up on because I am a stress eater, and in med school there is lots of stress, and therefore lots of eating. I can think of two positive things that I have done this year, although much improvement is still needed. First, I started doing hot yoga and I loved it! There is something amazing about being in a hot room, stretching your body to its limits. I think its a great exercise and everytime I go, I pledge to incoporporate it into my weekly schedule. However, I get busy and stressed out, and yoga is one of the things that goes. This should change. The second thing that I have liked to do is incoporate fruit-and-veggie cleanses every few months. I have done this three times so far and find it really helpful! When I have gotten out of control with eating out and not cooking at home, making myself do a fruit-and-veggie cleans has helped me get refocused and back into the swing of cooking healthy. I hope that I will continue to remember to do this next year. I know that I need to continue to find a balance between my health and school; I plan to work on this a lot again in the new year.
2) [School Goal #1]: Improve semester average and Master each course!
Success! Normally I wouldn't want to share my grades on my blog, but I am so proud of myself that I feel like I need to. Not only have I mastered each course (which is above a 85%), the lowest grade I received on any exam for the whole semester was an 89%, finishing the semester off with a 91% average. I am pretty proud of myself to say the least! I hope to continue this trend into the next semester and give myself a confidence boost as I enter into my intensive study period for my board exams!
3) [School Goal #2]: Participate a valuable externship or research experience.
Success again! This summer, I participated in a fantastic month-long externship at St. John's Hospital, that allowed me to spend 1-week shadowing in Pediatrics, OB/Gyn, Emergency Medicine, and General Surgery. I learned so much and totally and completely reaffirmed my decision to go into medicine. I have also been doing Neonatology research for the past year and am hopefully adding a new research project soon.
4) [Relationship]: Continue to work on the balance between school and my relationship.
Also successul! [I'm on a role!]. I think this year has been so much easier because S is a 4th year and has way more time to spend time with me, even when I'm busy. There has been many times that he will come visit when I have exams and he will just sit in my study room and watch movies on his laptop while I study. I know that does not sound exciting, but for busy med students, I am thankful for the time we get together. This last semester, we even got to see each other about 3-4 times a week, which is great! I'm very happy.
5) [Friends]: Contact friends from the past.
Hrm. I'm going to say that I half-way completed this. I can't think of anyone I really contacted that I have completed lost contact with, but I think that I did do a good job visiting friends in different areas of this country. For example, I am lucky to still see my girlfriends from high school everytime I come home from break....AND, a few months ago, I went to New York City to meet up with all my old college roommates. So, I think I should keep working on this, but I am happy to say that for the friends that are important to me from high school and college, I think that I am making an effort to maintain these friendships.
6) [Self #1]: Travel to a New Place.
Yes. Yes. and Yes. I traveled to lots of new places!!! Most exciting was my trip to Peru. I spent three weeks there and visited lots of cities (including Lima, Cuzco, Chiclin, Chicama, Trujillo, etc). I also did a 4-day hike through the Salkantay Trail and up to Machu Picchu. [You can read all about my trip here.] Besides Peru, I also got to explore more of my new state! This summer, I lived with my friend Michelle in Harrison Township and volunteered in Grosse Point; I also went to Detroit a few times. I also went to the neighboring state of Ohio (to go to the Cedar Pointe theme park). For spring break, I road-triped down to North Carolina to have the most incredibly relaxing week of my life in the Outer Banks...and finally, I recently just returned from the state of Massachusetts, where I visited the city of Boston for the first time. So, yes. I way accomplished this goal and hope to have many more additions to this list next year! :)
7) [Self #2] Learn a New Skill.
Does studying count? Because I have gotten really good at that!
No? Okay, I know that. I think I failed at this one. The only thing I can think of is that I have really started to enjoy drawing. At Disneyland, I have taken a few of those mini-art classes where they teach you how to draw Disney characters; this is always my favorite part of my Disneyland trips (as nerdy as that sounds). I also am currently doing illustrations for a children's book that I wrote last year and am hopefully getting published in the near future. So, no I don't think that I have learned a new skill well...but I have become interested in a new skill that I still need to learn. Does that count?
Well thats it for now. I think overall, I did a pretty good job with my 2012 resolutions and hope that 2013 proves to be just as great, if not better!
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