Movin' on up!

I passed!!!! I'm a third semester! Second did not claim my soul, but it came very, very close and did steal a portion of my sanity for awhile.

Now I've got two days to clean the house before my family gets here, do a little bit of packing for moving into my new apartment next week, pick up Amelia and Dolly after dropping their owners off at the airport, all in the midst of a big storm heading our way tomorrow. But that's okay, I'm rested and recharged. Last night I unwound by going out for Indian food and watching RENT while singing along loudly with one of my best friends down here (who also passed).

But I'm going to have to recognize when/if I'm getting stretched too thin when my family is here and let them know that I need to rest. That's where I got myself into trouble last break. I tried to see too many people in a short period of time and was constantly shuffled from one place to the next and didn't get any time to just relax. This past week has basically sapped me dry physically, emotionally and psychologically. I'm a little broken inside from the stress and self-loathing I was feeling these last few days and need to get that under control before going into third. I've heard bad, bad things about Virology and Bacteriology and third semester only has two exams - a midterm and a final. So there is no affording any mistakes. I can't go into it with the headspace I'm in right now or I'll fail out.

They warned us that we only have two weeks in between semesters and that this program is intense and a lot of people can't cut it. You never fully appreciate that until you're in the thick of it. But think about how stressed and exhausted anyone is during finals week. Now take that, multiply it by three times a year, and only 14 days afterward you're thrust into a new semester with more challenging classes. This is the most insane rollercoaster I've ever been on, and a highly self-destructive one at that, but I have to keep the end goal in sight.

Home stretch.

Alright people, it's finals crunch time. Don't expect any pearls of wisdom from me for at least the next two weeks.

Break is three weeks away along with seeing my family and moving into my new apartment. I also have three cats lined up for pet-sitting over break, which will be a nice little bit of extra cash coming in. Two of the kittens I'm getting are Amelia and Dolly, and a third 3-month-old male from a friend of Mia, Dolly's new owner. No word yet on whether I'll also be getting Roman, but his owner is supposed to email me.

Tropical storm Emily is just barely grazing us right now. We lost power for about 3 hours but that's been the worst of it so far. I got all my hurricane emergency supplies ready just in case, though. Now I have a cabinet full of bottled water, canned food, bug repellant and chafing dish fuel.