Hi guys!
I'm writing to you now as an official second year! I'm about to start my third week of summer session, and it has been a whirlwind so far! It's nice to be back in Memphis too, but this summer heat is ridiculous. I've always thought Pennsylvania had humid summers but that is nothing compared to Tennessee. I've never been so thankful for air conditioning in my life!
So far the biggest change from first to second year has been our schedule. Last year we had classes in the morning and labs in the afternoon, but it is switched now. I have lab 3 days a week, and classes every day from 1:00-4:30. I didn't think I'd like the change, but it's good to have some time to study in the morning before classes start. I wouldn't have thought that we'd have so much work after only two weeks, but given the fact that the summer is only 6 weeks they really try to give as much information as possible. In terms of the classes themselves, we have pathology and pharmacology every day, evidence-based medicine 4 days a week, and inter-professional education once a week. It's great to finally start learning some more applied medicine, and I'm so excited to continue with this.
In terms of labs, we have theory and methods lab twice a week and a foundations of service learning seminar once a week. Theory has gotten more advanced. Our class just started doing fundoscopy exams with the slit lamps. It's definitely not easy but it's such an amazing skill and I've been anxiously waiting to learn it. We're also continuing with our refractive skills and already had our first practical last week.
Overall, I'm really happy to be back and to be getting started on my second year. It wasn't easy to get back into the groove after having such a long time off, but there's no going back now! Hope you're all enjoying these summer months!