Tri-3, Wk14, Day 196, Friday

Went to bed around 10 last night and got up a little before 1 a.m. It was good to get a little shuteye.

I've been working on Basic and Public Health. I think I'm going to take off by 4 a.m. and go to a restaurant close to school and study until 6 then head to the cafeteria at school.

I need this break coming up like never before. I heard yesterday that Tri-4 has 1 more hour than tri-3 which would mean 35 hours per week of classes. Good physical condition is rather essential to success in a program like this -

I have noticed a reduction in the pitting edema which first took hold during tri-1. Undoubtedly, this is a positive result from my decreased commute time since the main highway to school opened up.

I'm still not sure if I'm going to make it through all my classes but will be finding out soon - I guess by this time next week.

I now believe living closer to school would have benefits beyond just more study time. I think stress levels would be reduced with more people around that are going through the same thing. There's an instant rapport and everybody understands the concerns and many are going through similar experiences.

With extra time yesterday I was able to talk more with fellow classmates. One guy said he dropped pathology after the second test because his scores were so low he couldn't come back and he wanted to salvage his remaining classes ...again, it's just a time issue. Another girl I talked with was very concerned with Public Health because she had failed the first two test.

Lately, I've been considering breaking up next trimester and taking two trimesters to complete it to get myself back in shape, both physically and mentally.

I'll have to wait and see how my brain is doing in a week or two but, I may have to look into the option further with my advisor to weigh the pros and cons of such an action.

As much as I have been struggling with all the stress, there's still a certain appeal to the major challenge that Tri-4 holds. Except for maybe 2 weekends, it's going to literally be 7 day per week schooling through the March, when the National Boards testing occurs.

I'm thinking I should probably take advantage of one of those offers to stay with somebody on Friday nights since the Irene Gold prep classes won't be getting done until 8 and the Saturday sessions start at 8 a.m.

Today's picture is called Cold_Steel_Chinese_War_Sword.

I still have 9 Final Exams, 1 paper and 5 days of school left to fight through.

I'm beat up but not dead.

Yesterdays blog may have seemed a bit melancholy but, I do want to provide a sense of realism to the blog for anyone reading it who may be considering doing anything similar with their lives. I also wrote yesterdays blog immediately after my Ortho practical which gave it an extra boost of emotion.

Well, it's after 3:30 so I better get a moving.