It is nice to say that things have been improving since the last post. My confidence as a clinician has been growing daily in making decisions, our working relationship has been improving with a fellow student where I feel we are acting more as a team, and I am getting more respect from students as an adult-figure. Of course there are the bad days where I am second-guessing myself, but I am taking those experiences and learning on how to be a better clinician. With the winter season upon us, I look forward to getting more responsibilities and challenging myself even more. Also, its a plus when the basketball team is good and entertaining to watch. I have also done well in concentrating on bettering myself every day and avoid complaining about other people. I can only truly control myself and I know what I need to do.
I do want to comment on the sense of negativity going around in the program lately. It is easy to sense that everyone is stressed out due to classes, the increased clinical responsibilities, and the never-ending thesis assignments. Some people do a good job in realizing that people are stressed out and do not need to complain about it to everyone, while others feel they need to express their stresses to everyone they talk to. I realize that not everyone has the same workload right now with the different clinical assignments or handle their stress the same way, but I get the impression some are looking for sympathy or something of that nature from everyone. Everyone is busy and stressed out! This is what we signed up for, but I tell everyone this who look like they need it: there is a reason we are in this program and we will all find a way to succeed. There will be some bumps in the road, but we will all do well. Everyone reacts to stressful situations differently from what I learned, but the increased negativity is somehow fueling my stress levels. But some good is coming out of this stress, for it is getting me back into working out to relieve stress and get rid of the extra pounds I put on during thanksgiving haha (actually lost weight but thats probably because I didn't work out for the whole month of November and lost any muscle I had, so more pounds of fat).... All I am saying from this somewhat organized rant is R-E-L-A-X, RELAX. (Aaron Rodgers reference) Find time to wind down, watch a penguins game, read, watch a movie. I guess this is my inner RA speaking. I had to give this speech last year around finals and made a bulletin board on ways to de-stress and study tips for finals.
One thing I did notice I need to improve on is being more proactive with everything and getting stuff done ahead of time. I keep letting my list of responsibilities grow and noticed some of my responsibilities could be finished quickly. I get the thought in my head "oh, I could do this tonight" but then it turns into "I will just do that tomorrow." And then it turns into the next day, the next day, the next day, and so forth. December is focused to finishing strong in classes, working hard on my thesis, doing extra work at STAB, continuing my workouts, and doing more work regarding post-Virginia. Like Andrea mentioned in her post, I feel I have high standards for myself and I want to reach those standards. These high standards will help me reach my personal and professional goals.
Until next time everyone!
MARKY-MARK, GO PENGUINS!
