the one where it's almost the end of my first quarter!

Just a few weeks left in the quarter! I think I have five exams and one paper left. A couple of little assignments here and there was well, but it's winding down. It felt like it took me forever to get my head really in the game this quarter. The last quarter of the LVN program had so many stressful exams at the end that I think I checked out mentally a bit once they were done and I had passed everything I needed to. Studying for and taking the NCLEX in the middle of this quarter didn't help either. And, it was a weird start. Same building, literally the same classrooms I was in last quarter, but a completely different program. New to me teachers, new vibe, a blue tag on my id instead of the glaring red one, just lots of new things.

During the LVN program, I didn't have to study too much. I had to for Med/Surg 2 because those exams were all application and it threw me at first, but other than that, there wasn't anything I really stressed out over. I did most of the reading and a lot of concept maps, but no weekend study sessions or anything like that. When I was at graduation, I thought to myself that I would really like to graduate the ADN program with honors. Then I had the first round of exams and realized it was fine to simply pass everything. I connected with a study group for anatomy and physiology and promptly brought my grades in theory AND lab right up and I am so thankful for that. I don't feel like a main member of this group, but I am so grateful they've let me pop in and they've helped me so much. I think we are all taking A&P 2 theory and lab together and have designated study times for next quarter already. I hope this continuous all the way until I graduate. There's so much more ahead of us!

I am not good at straight sciences. It doesn't interest me, it's not information that clicks in my head right away. I've known that for a long time. I like concepts and theories. And if you can explain the sodium potassium pump to me in the context of a disease process or a medication classification, I would probably get it. But just straight up muscle contractions are so foggy to me. It probably sounds dumb, with me being a nurse and all. But Med/Surg, where we learn the disease processes and what to do to fix things, that is my comfy spot in nursing school. I get it. I understand it. My brain works that way. Knowing the anatomy and physiology certainly helps. I'm looking at it like learning how to do long division by hand before using a calculator or using it as a part of a process to figure something out. It helps you know if you're on the right track.

But I am not a fan of microscopes. I don't care. It blows my mind that people figured out all of this stuff about the human body and named it all and know the chemical reactions and how some things are actually electric. When it comes down to it though, I want to know the person that all of this amazingness is happening in.

Things are good! Gotta hold on and get through the next couple of weeks and above 74 in everything and then I get to move on. And have a ginormous Netflix binge. I have a lot of deep cleaning to do and meals to make for the freezer and the like. But there will be many things watched on Netflix as well.