Lecture Me to Death
For real, how many hours am I expected to just sit there and listen. Quite a few, as it turns out. And not just listen, but really hear what they're saying, make notes, try to make my notes legible so that when I go back later to study I'm not freaking out because I can't understand my own explanations. Under one note, I wrote "ther." What does that mean? That's not a word! It doesn't even make sense for it to be "their," or "there," it is a complete mystery to me. Hope it wasn't important. I'm just not used to this. Never in my entire life have I sat all day listening to someone else speak. Even in high school they gave us an hour of PE. But this is very much not high school, and I'm beginning to realize that nursing school may in fact be the hardest thing I've ever accomplished (should I be fortunate enough to actually accomplish it).
Questions, Questions, Questions!
We have a chatterbox. I mentioned her in Boot Camp: Day One of Two when I had the misfortune of being seated next to her. She can't shut up. It's not that she won't, I don't think, it's that she physically does not have the ability to close her mouth. Perhaps she has a septal deviation and cannot breath through her nose, causing her to perpetually have her mouth agape in order not to suffocate, and while it's in that position she thinks why not make incoherent ramblings come out as long as it's already open. My friend and I counted in a fifty minute period how many times this girl asked a question. Six. Six questions in a fifty minute period of lecture. That's more than a question every ten minutes. And I'm not talking about the times she simply raised her hand to ask a question, which was mind-blowingly frequent, I'm talking the times this gesture was successful and she was actually called on. And what questions! I think you know what I'm talking about.
Books
Well, there they are. Minus my Med Surg book, which they are currently out of, but which I need for next week (maybe I should just order it online. Hm). All together, those things cost me a cool $475. That's all financial aid money, of course. Oh, yeah, speaking of financial aid...Give Me My Money!
Have you applied for a student loan lately? Yeah, it's a blast. And then, even after all the work you've done to prove you are indeed worthy of a particular sum of money, there's more paperwork to do of which I was not aware. It was a week before school started, and still I didn't have any aid in my account. So, I bought my books on a voucher. No big deal. Four days after school had already started and still no money. My tuition hadn't been paid. This might be a problem. So I go to the financial aid desk to get some answers. Oh, they're a lively bunch behind the financial aid desk. I don't know what kind of sedatives they're giving those people, but let me tell you it's some first-rate stuff. The guy was barely awake enough to tell me I had to go to the bank website and sign a something-or-other thing (I don't remember what it's called, just give me my money!). So I hop on the computer and do all eight pages of necessary steps, get to the final page and it won't let me submit. Not cool. I call the bank. Apparently, the school uses Firefox, which is not compatible with Commerce Bank's esign feature. Great. Thanks for telling me before I filled out eight pages worth of information fields. Hey, Commerce, how about letting me know in advance next time, say, on page one of eight instead of page eight of eight! Sound like a good idea? Does it? Greeeeeat.
Tests, Tension, and Time Management
I've been to the testing center three times this week to take the same medical terminology test. I need a 90% and I keep getting 85%. There are a number of these little tests that we have to get done on our own; standardized things to satisfy some kind of requisite for the state. They're really irritating. It wouldn't be so bad if they didn't change up the questions every time. There's a math one too, and for that I have to get a 100%. Ha! Never, in my entire childhood, adolescent or adult life have I ever gotten 100% on anything containing the word "math." I can't imagine how many times I'm going to have to take that one to pass it. Which brings me to my main source of stress for this week, and that is the difficulty associated with time management when you have no idea how many times you're going to have to take the same test in a single week. I had planned on taking the med term test one time, and instead it was three, and I'll have to try yet again next week. So the time slots for tests #2 and #3 were alloted to other things which I had to then move to a different time slot, which meant the things in those time slots had to be moved somewhere else (they're still floating somewhere above Kansas City, I think). It's all a mind game. It's all about deciding what is going to get done, because there's not enough time in the week to get it all done, so something must be sacrificed and you just have to cross your fingers and pray that you choose to kill off the right thing.
Stress Management
This week, I did a few things to relieve my stress. I took naps - that not so much for stress management as for the fact that I was completely exhausted and unable to keep my eyes open, nor my body erect. I played Disk Golf. Google it, it's way awesome. And I made this sandwich, which was divine.
The Sandwich (follow these levels to the letter, from bottom to top):Toasted piece of bread
Miracle Whip (don't start about that Mayo crap)
Lettuce
Turkey bacon (it's okay, you can use real bacon. Lucky)
Tomato
Avocado slices (be generous, you won't regret it)
Toasted piece of bread
Inhale. Enjoy.
Nursing School Stats:
Hershey's Chocolate squares consumed: 20
Naps taken due to exhaustion: 2
Breakdowns that include crying: 1
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