It’s hard to believe we are starting our 4th week of classes in this semester! It seems like just yesterday we were enjoying our holiday break back at home with our friends and family. Alas, we are all back in Memphis now and are hitting the ground running with our second semester of optometry school!
The professors did not cut us a break from any information we might have forgotten during our time home. It seemed like we picked up right where we left off last semester with learning new procedures in our theory and methods lab. We got right back to practicing our chair skills for a practical in our second week of classes. Cover testing, checking pupils, and determining visual fields are becoming second nature to us first years as we all breezed through our practical with flying colors. This week in lab we are getting dilated for the first time so we can use the direct ophthalmoscope on each other to see the retina and optic nerve head. I’m very excited to learn new procedures and the theory behind these procedures this semester!
But it hasn’t been all hard work since we’ve been back! We had our school-sponsored formal, The Eye Ball (you get it, right?) over the weekend. It was so much fun to get dressed up and hang out with classmates at the beautiful Cadre building in downtown Memphis. Everyone looked great and busted out their dancing shoes for a night full of memories we will never forget!
This weekend I am heading to the Knoxville area for a Remote Area Medical (RAM) trip! I’m very excited to see real patients for the first time and have the chance to truly make a difference in the way individuals see the world. I’ll be sure to talk about it in my next blog posting!