It's Crunch Time

and no, I'm not referring to my abs. I've been in hiding for the past couple months because I've been studying like crazy for part 1 of the national board exam. Part 1 is the hardest according to most (all?) people you talk to. It's a grueling 2 day exam that covers everything we've ever learned. It's less than a month away now, which means I'm really starting to feel the heat. It also means that in less than a month I'll get my life back and be able to return to blogging!

Going to the Out House

Backtracking a few weeks... The day before Thanksgiving I got to choose the two externship sites I will be working at during my fourth year. I'll spend the first 6 months doing internships "in house" at the 3 local clinics associated with the school.

The last 6 months will be divided up into two - three month rotations away from school. I decided to do the first "out house" rotation at a private practice in Miami that has an emphasis on specialty contact lens fittings and sports vision therapy. My second "out house" rotation will be at a very large, multi-location practice in my hometown that deals with a lot of ocular disease and surgery. The practice has 8 different locations and a broad range of doctors and specialties, including optometrists, ophthalmologists, cosmetic surgeons, hearing specialists, and skin care professionals. I'll get a chance to visit as many of the practices as I'd like and even go into the OR to observe any of the surgeries being performed. All in all, I'm very excited to get more experience and to work in all the different practice settings. However, it also makes me a bit nervous to realize how close I am to graduating. It's felt so far off for so long, but it's starting to hit me now that it's only a year and a half away!

And just for fun I threw in a photo of me with some friends. This photo was taken after we gave a presentation to two high school classes about the profession. We all tried to maintain our composure when one girl, the first person to raise a hand, asked Johnny (far right) if he was nervous because he was talking so fast! We got bombarded with tons of other questions, some pretty off the wall. 

I'm baaaack!

As I was typing the title to this post Steve Urkel pop into my head with his signature catchphrase, "I'm baaaack!" (Hey! Don't those look like the same glasses I made and put on our pumpkin?!)

Last Sunday I flew to Jacksonville for a two day contact lens seminar put on by one of the major contact lens manufacturers, all expenses paid. Due to scheduling conflicts none of my friends were able to go and I ended up being the only student from my school there. It was a bit nerve wracking for an introvert like myself, but I ended up having a great time and am really glad I went. Not knowing anyone there took away my crutch and forced me to meet a number of really nice students from other schools that I may not have talked to otherwise. 

Wednesday, the day after my return, was my last day in clinic for the semester. In a couple weeks we will start our winter semester and I'll be back in clinic, but thankfully I'll be working a different day. That means no more 12+ hour days! Woohoo! 

Getting Shot... Again

The last time I wrote about getting shot I was referring to an upcoming photo shoot, but this time I'm talking about needles!

Yesterday I got some blood work done as part of my yearly physical exam and I blacked out. And tomorrow we are getting our injections certification which requires us to give (and receive) three different types of shots! Yikes! I'm pretty confident the blacking out was just my usual response to having so much blood taken since I don't really fear needles, but I'm still a bit nervous for tomorrow. My only solace is that it's just the arm and not the eye...at least not yet.

Wish me (and my partner) luck!

Career choices

Are there any other careers that you considered pursuing before you ended up where you are now? What else would you consider if you weren't in your current field?

I always felt a little lost because there were a number of things I considered before I decided to pursue optometry, unlike Andy and most of my friends who always seemed to know exactly what they wanted to do. Some of the other careers that interested me:

• Genetic counselor 
• Photographer
• Wedding/event planner
• French teacher, or English teacher in France

I was just thinking about this as I was browsing a well known photographer's blog and thinking how I wished I could take such beautiful photos or at least had more free time to get out and practice. Maybe I just need to make some time!