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Holy cannoli… We’re two weeks into M2 year and I already find myself pretty much exhausted. The expectations were much greater right from the get-go: there’s a ton of information that we need to learn and relatively little time in which to learn it. There’s not really any good way to circumvent that basic dilemma. (I’ve tried.) In other words, we’re going to be working our butts off. Even so, the learning process itself is much more rewarding than ever before. There’s a complete absence of “squint and you might see it” clinical relevance here. The stuff we’re learning now is pretty stinkin’ obvious in regards to why we should know about it. (Because we’ll be taking care of sick people, duh.)

Our first sequence is cardiovascular and let me go ahead and share some profound and hard-earned knowledge with you: EKGs are the worst. The. WORST. I mean, once you get a handle on the basics of how they work (which is no small feat in and of itself), it seems like they’re not going to be that bad. But then little discrepancies in your understanding start popping out of the woodwork. More and more instances of ideal vs. real life rear their ugly head. One professor refers to the interpretation of EKGs as “squiggleology” which makes it sound like it’s actually super cute! I’m not fooled.

Does this look cute to you?

Alright, enough complaining. (In case you haven’t picked up on it by now, whining is how I cope. Don’t be alarmed.) One thing that really took me by surprise is how different it feels to be an M2 as opposed to an M1. I’m constantly reminded of how much I don’t know (see above EKG rant), but hearing about and seeing all the experiences that the M1s are having for the first time makes me realize how much my classmates and I have accomplished over the past year nonetheless. It’s awesome to be in a position now where I can offer advice to new students and actually kind of know what I’m talking about. My anatomy BFF Joey and I (Hi, Joey!!!) are going to be helping out with an Intro to Anatomy lecture for the M1s. That’s 100% bananas, and yet I actually have some stuff to say that (hopefully) won’t be totally useless. When did this happen?!?

On another positive note, I’m excited to get to work on a new project (new to me, at least; just got on board this summer) with my classmate Amy that will provide review sessions for the Step 1 exam. My preferred method of dealing with Step 1 would be to punch it in the face, but I have really bad aim and lack upper extremity strength so intense study efforts will have to suffice. I’m hoping that this project will serve both as another way to be involved/support my class and as motivation to do some studying of my own (in addition to all the other studying I do… yuckers).

Oh man, I almost forgot! I have to make a fuss over the new Taubman library because it is the bestest. (I may or may not have referred to it as my boyfriend/fiancé at various points in time. Don’t judge me.) There is so much space – no matter what your preferred study environment may be, you’re going to find some hidey hole that works for you. There are windows EVERYWHERE (hooray for sunlight without actually being exposed to sunlight!) as well as shiny Sharp TVs (with easily accessible HDMI inputs; of course I checked, what do you take me for?!?). The grand opening was such a short time ago that we still discover random surprises from time to time. I walked into the student lounge yesterday evening to discover new couches! Wahoo! (It’s the little things in life.) I’m going to be spending a loooooot of time in this place, so I’m grateful for each and every discovery.

One day, I will game from this couch. It will be glorious.