One semester down, three to go...

This is a tree outside our apartment. I forgot to take pictures when we had nearly a foot of snow, so you'll have to settle for the light dusting we're getting right now.

I've made it through my first semester of graduate school! There were times when I thought this day would never come, but now that it's here, it's easy to look back and see myself getting used to a different kind of work than I'd ever done before. I think (though you'll have to confirm this one with Alicia) there was a definite upturn after midterms, when I realized that I couldn't do all of my reading on time, but that I could do enough of it to learn what I needed to learn, and get as much as possible out of what I was reading. What's more encouraging is that it took me about a year and a half to figure out how to make medical school work for me. This makes me hope that I'm getting to a part of the learning curve that is a little steeper (read: for each small unit of time, I progress upward on the curve significantly, rather than creeping upward as lots of time passes).

In all fairness, my semester has been over for a good week and a half now. I finished last Tuesday with my last exam. That said, my break didn't really start because I had gifts to craft and purchase for my family (I like the Solstice, we celebrate Christmas; it works out well.) I turned our study into "Santa¿s Secret Workshop," which I later modified to "Santa¿s Secret Sweatshop" when I realized how much I had to do before I went home to see my family. Don't worry, no elves/children/animals/other people were harmed in the making of my gifts. I got everything done with about a day to spare, and then had a really hard time sitting still, relaxing, sleeping, etc because I was so hyped up.

Now that that's over, however, I've moved on to the rest and relaxation period of my break. I've had several rough days of reading in my pajamas at my parents¿ homes, and plan to continue this strenuous relaxing mixed with small amounts of work and other things I need to get done until I return to school. For the first night in quite some time, I didn't wake up around 3:00 am last night. This is definite progress, and I'm hoping to unwind to the point that I'm ready to face next semester!