I will admit that upon the beginning of second year last summer, I lamented the passing of my “last summer.” What a bummer, I thought.
However, I never imagined that a summer with a full schedule of clinic and class could still be so much fun. Seriously, there has been so much going on during these past few months that it’s hard to keep track of it all: SVOSH, the last Grizzlies games, sunset symphonies, free concerts at the Levitt Shell, fireworks, Trolley Nights, Special Olympics, Fourth of July festivities, weddings (two of them!), proposals (two of them, both of which I was a participant, and one was even a flash mob proposal in Chattanooga), adventures with my brother in a rented Dodge Challenger (vroom vroom), new Memphis restaurants and other explorations, Optometry’s Meeting in San Diego…the list goes on, and on. So, even if I technically don’t have “a summer,” it sure still seems like a great one by any standards!
A brief and incomplete photographic summary of this summer so far.
But yet, what’s been wonderful about this summer is that a lot of learning and optometric growth has been happening as well. We third-years have been seeing patients for about two months now. While I can’t say I’ve seen anything too crazy in clinic, both in terms of ocular conditions and patient personalities, I have definitely enjoyed the patient interactions and learning from the staff doctors in our various rotations through the different clinical departments.
Typically, my weeks have started heavy. On Mondays, I can be in Optical, Teen Clinic, or Technology. However, just depending on individual schedules, some others in my class have assignments for shadowing in Ocular Disease or Contact Lens as well. Tuesday is my Adult Primary Care day, and I can see anywhere from one to three patients a day. Wednesday I have Contact Lens lab and Vision Rehabilitation lab, and Thursdays are reserved for Strabismus and Amblyopia lab and Integrative Analysis. Fridays I have been assigned to Vision Therapy, Eye Center (where we learn background information about the administration of The Eye Center), or nothing at all. Also, some people also have assignments to give screenings at nursing homes.
Last week, we received the list of externship sites, and we have a few weeks to mull things over and decide where we will spend our fourth year. I feel like this is a momentous leap forward in my education, and I can’t believe the time has already come for us to decide. What happened to those young, bright-eyed first-years beaming brightly at their White Coat Ceremony in fall of 2011? Ha, I guess they became young, bright-eyed third-years grinning greatly at how much time has passed by, and at what is still to come. I’ll be sure to update you on my extern sites when they are assigned.
All this, and don’t forget we still have class in the mornings as well! Some of the classes even happen at 7:30 in the morning, which hasn’t happened to me since high school. But still, even with a full schedule, there is so much time for enjoying Memphis in the summer, and life events as they happen. With roughly a month left of the semester…I wonder what will happen next?