First off, I'd like to thank Rob Greenfield for motivating me to start one of these. And, although my life hasn't been quite as adventurous as his has so far, I'm hoping to change that. So pharmacy school, and an upcoming job in pharmacy might slow me down a little in that regard...that's ok, I'll take full advantage of the time I DO have.
See, I'm already being adventurous in writing this as I should be studying for my last Pharmacokinetics exam of my life, thank God, which happens to be tomorrow at 1 pm by the way. Not that I'm too worried about it, but still. The real test is Tuesday morning with my last Therapeutics exam and needing to get a 70% on it to pass the class and go on to rotations! Since I got a 90% on the similar exam first semester, I feel pretty confident. However, the material for this semster has been a lot tougher to study, so hopefully tomorrow night will be really, really productive in studying.
So, as I drink my coffee and procrastinate and think about what has happened over the past few years, and what may or may not happen in the upcoming years, I get pretty excited. Life has been really good overall. Sure, things like being forced out of my last apartment due to flooding, or tearing my knee up playing basketball and needing surgery this semester have been tough to deal with, but luckily I'm surrounded by an incredible group of friends and family.
Speaking of looking forward to the future, I am DONE with college classes at last. I'm both happy and kind of sad about that fact. Happy, because the years of studying and taking exams and finishing projects has been stressful, and because I can finally go out and start to make money, but sad because I love college, and the changes that every semester brings, the comraderie you share with your classmates, especially in a graduate program, and really, the lack of a daily grind. That is the one fear I have about the real world, and why I wish I could at times do something different with my life. It's also why, as much as I am very thankful that I'm going into a profession where I know that if I do my job well and am professional that I will have great job security with good pay, I sort of fear having to go to the same place every day, stand in a small area with the same people every day, and perform repetitive motions over and over, like counting pills and entering prescriptions. I KNOW that almost everyone goes about their lives the same way, whether it's an office or cubicle or construction or whatever, but I've never really wanted to settle for that. So, my thinking has kind of led me into thinking about a pharmacy residency. I even had a dream about one last night. It would give me the ability to have more diverse career options before me, instead of having to go straight into community. Not that there really is anything wrong with that, and if that's what happens, I'm sure I'll handle it fine. But it gets me a little more excited to think about what life would be like as an ambulatory pharmacist, spending time in a clinic as well as on the campus of a pharmacy school, teaching classes. I know it definitely would help to avoid the grind. And even if I do a residency and can't find the job I want right away, I could stilll go into community and have that residency in my back pocket if I get sick of community pharmacy at some point. So therein lies my thinking...
Really, what I enjoy the most is making travel plans, and then going out and acting on them. Last spring finals were much more easy to get through since I had my backpacking trip with Dane to look forward to. I actually talked to him this morning about it, and really wish we could go on another trip, to a different part of Europe (Spain, Italy, Greece, Poland etc.) In fact I looked up plane tickets to Ireland for next November, and was really really happy to find that the prices are about 1/2 of what Dane and I paid for our tickets last summer. I told my mom a few years back that someday we'd get to Ireland, and I figure that my 6 week break between rotations this year would be a great time to go. So we're going, and my mom will be making her first trip overseas while I make my 3rd. I couldn't be more excited even though it's 6 months away! Only $530 round trip from Minneapolis to Dublin. Sure, November in Ireland will be cold and wet, but cheap and less touristed as well. Lots of time to spend shaking off the cold with a pint and some craic (traditional Irish music) each and every night. Throw in some castles, hikes, museums, and whatever else we get ourselves into, and I am sure it's gonna be a blast.
So no big trips plannd until then, but a week from now my girlfriend Sam and I are going to be headed up to Wisconsin to see the family and Ashland for the first time since Christmas. It will be her first time in WI so hopefully we have a great time. Going to get to the Apostle Islands, Copper Falls, Bayfield Winery, and go biking, as well as eat at my favorite restaurant, Maggie's, in Bayfield. On the way up, we're going to stop and see Erin in Minneapolis and check out her new place where she lives with her fiancee, Mike. After Ashland, we're going to head down to Milwaukee for my buddy Mark's wedding, which I'm standing up in. Dane is going to come over from Madison for the wedding and reception, so I'll get to see the entire family on this trip :)
I've done a great job procrastinating so far, but kinetics won't study itself, so that's the plan for the rest of the day other than a trip to the gym and laundry. Pretty exciting stuff, but luckily lots to look forward to in the future.
