Between classes, club meetings, studying and socializing, these past couple of weeks have really flown by! As first years, we've started learning retinoscopy techniques in lab and have already taken our very first lecture exam. There's no better way to kick off our optometric education than by jumping in feet first! I'm really enjoying my classes so far and have learned A LOT of things that will be critical in clinical practice. The professors are very helpful and make it clear that they are there to help us succeed. It's very nice to know that they see us as future colleagues and treat us as such. SCO emphasizes that we, as students, are the primary stakeholders and my experiences so far definitely hold that statement to be true. There are little things that happen each day that affirm optometry as my choice of profession and remind me that SCO is where I am meant to be.
We have our second exam coming up soon (and roughly 1 exam a week for the next several weeks) so I foresee a lot of studying in my future! However there are a few non-academic things coming up that I'm excited about. Optifest, which is sponsored by our American Optometric Student Association (AOSA) chapter, is an annual fundraising event that gives us an opportunity to buy optical frames & products at a discount, as well as network with optical industry representatives. Homecoming and Convocation are also in a few weeks so I'm very excited to be officially welcomed into the profession as a student and receive my white coat!
I'm slowly, but surely, settling into my groove and have been able to balance everything on my plate so far. It has required a bit of work to stay on top of things, but every effort to do so has been worth it. However, I'm off to enjoy some downtime before I get my nose back in those books!
Thanks for reading! :-)
Feyisayo