Yes, I realize December is almost halfway over and I am just now writing about my favorite moments from November. But things happen. This week marks the last week of my pre-clerkship classes, and I’ve also been transitioning into studying for my board exam coming up in January (the infamous USMLE Step 1 Exam), so school stuff has been a lot lately. Oh, and my laptop decided to go crazy on me so I had to replace my hard drive. Yay.
But, better late than never, so here goes a list of my favorite things from November 2016. Or, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, things I was thankful for this past month:
- Thanksgiving. Duh. This is the highlight of November. What’s not to love about Thanksgiving? This year I was extra lucky and had two Thanksgiving dinners–one with my relatives in South Carolina (the annual Thanksgiving family reunion), and another one the Saturday after Thanksgiving Day. The second Thanksgiving was just with my parents and sister because mom worked Thanksgiving and couldn’t join us in South Carolina. My sister and I prepared the whole meal, and we didn’t hold back even though it was going to just be the four of us. I mean, if you’re going to do Thanksgiving, you’ve gotta go all out.
- Election day. No, the election didn’t turn out the way I had hoped. But I greatly appreciate living in a country where I can exercise my right to vote and make my voice heard.
- Wilderness workshop. The Emergency Medicine Interest Group and Wilderness Medicine Interest Group at my medical school put together a workshop designed to teach people important survival skills and tips for enjoying time in the great outdoors. Now, the closest thing I have ever done to camping was when I was in Girl Scouts and my Brownie troop camped in our troop leader’s backyard. But, I’d really like to go ~real~ camping one day, so getting advice from some of my classmates who are avid outdoorsmen/women was great. And I learned how to start a fire out of twigs and leaves and stuff which was pretty cool.
- Falling leaves. In my October Favorites post I wrote about how much I love fall. Part of the reason I love it so much is because I loveeee when the leaves change colors. Campus looked so so so beautiful this past month with the orange, yellow and red leaves all over the ground.
- Therapy Dogs. A student group organized an event in our library the week before we left for Thanksgiving break that included therapy dogs–perfect timing seeing as we were in the midst of studying for an exam! The dogs usually visit patients in the Children’s Hospital, and they even have their own trading cards. Too cute.
And those are the highlights! Thanks for reading!
-S
Work hard, and flourish 