I think this is the first time in my life that the daylight savings left me as refreshed as possible. Of course, I always feel a tad bit happier and relaxed with one extra hour of sleep, but because I was extremely busy on both Saturday and Sunday, I ended up sleeping a few hours earlier than my normal bedtime, and got about 10hours of sleep.Each day. Yes, its crazy, but wow I feel so good right now! I feel invincible, as if I can solve my many orgo problems with my eyes closed, finish all my assignments for this week tonight ( not really happening, but I am beyond motivated right now to begin tackling them), and most importantly, help achieve world peace (I'm joking, although this is quite a heft goal to achieve all by my lonesome self).
So, with all this extra sleep, I was looking forward to my lectures today, expecting my normally baggy-eyed head to stay up during class sans coffee. Alas, old habits die hard, and I ended up nodding off, as usual, halfway through my lecture ( but instead of for 5 minutes, more like a minute or so), dreaming about I think a chicken burrito bowl (now extremely overpriced) from Chipotle. A bummer to see that the extra sleep I had didn't benefit me immediately, but I'm not going to complain about having such a restive weekend.
Especially considering I just finished all my midterms last week, with barely enough sleep ( I drank so much coffee and water to stay up, that I ended up with multiple stomach aches while taking tests). Sure, that sounds pretty typical from whomever you speak to, but for me, having five extremely important midterms ( each counted for at least 25% of each class's grade), within the span of 8 days ( my organic chem lab test and biochem midterm were a few hours apart, woohoo!), was the biggest challenge in my undergrad career so far, in terms of tackling study material for each test within a manageable time frame. Even finals weeks' in the past were easier to deal with and plan ahead for, as each final was scheduled for a different day. I really do hope Hunter comes up with a solid outline and guideline for midterms' weeks of the future, having (especially) different science classes schedule their exams at different times ,rather than at the same time. Because yes, as students, we should be able to deal with and manage our time efficiently to study for exams at the same time, but on the other hand, there is a limit to the balance between studying/understanding the material, and simply cramming for the test because of the pressure and stress from facing multiple exams for one week. All suggestions aside, it seems I did overcome my challenge quite well, as I did remarkably well on 3 of my midterms so far. Now just for those other two grades ....
Aside from the same old conversation about exams and midterms, I attended the 7th annual Oral and Maxillofacial Symposium at Columbia University on Saturday. I was not exactly looking forward to traveling all the way up to Morningside Heights from Nassau county at 6 in the morning, but I am extremely grateful that I did. I did not fully understand the scope and breadth of the specialty until Saturday, and definitely did not expect to meet as many other driven students as well.The event was an much needed eye-opener, with many of the Columbia doctors and professors discussing their cases with us (accompanied by some very graphic, bloody slides, which I surprisingly was able to stomach). I really cannot wait for future pre-dental events offered by dental schools in the area!
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