Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Educational Crisis and Further Proving My Nerdiness

A website? That I type about my personal life on? WHAT IS THIS?! I don't recall ever having such a thing. Ok, maybe I remember it a little bit.

So let's start with 'Hi.' and 'How are you?' I've missed this little world of mine and wish I had more time to write, but c'est la vie.  I'm hopefully getting back into a more set schedule since the semester has started, which will maybe leave me with some more time. Like I always do when I start blogging again, I'm here to give you a little 'update' on my life! But at the moment it's only school update because I started typing and realized I had a whole post. Sorry if it's booooorrrrriiiinnnngggg.

School has been the "huge change" recently in my life. For those that don't know, I've been at community college the past couple years, and finally received my associates. I couldn't take any more credits at the community college, so have switched over to the university to take one last semester of classes before I hopefully* start the nursing program in January. I turn my application in next week but won't know if I've been accepted until November.

I started classes two weeks ago and they are SO different at NAU than CCC. The science classes at CCC are combined, so your lab and lecture are together. At NAU they are separate so I have an hour and fifteen minute lecture two days a week, then have a separate almost three hour lab another day with a different teacher. Then I have a separate hour long writing lecture that gives me my assignments for the lab with yet another teacher, where I turn homework in only to get it sent to my original lab teacher anyways. I do like that it caps the lecture out at a certain time, as opposed to CCC where many teachers lecture the entire 2 1/2 hour class time! At the same time, I really like my microbiology lecture (NERD ALERT) and would like to hear him continue talking. Ha!

Spanish class is also a weird one to get used to because it's so short. I go to a fifty minute class four days a week. It seems like we get there, she does introductions and talks about homework, takes attendance, and then class is almost over! We get hardly any time to practice (maybe fifteen or twenty minutes tops) so it's frustrating. It seems like it would be better to just have it in longer sessions twice a week. I'm also a visual learner so it's hard for me to hear stuff then to go look at the book later, because the book isn't really that helpful. Thanks to the interwebs, I play children's learning games which seems to help! I have never taken any Spanish class before, so any help I can find is useful.

As for my other classes, Humanities and Medical Nutrition, they seem simple enough! They are both online and I do pretty well with those kinds of classes. For one of our nutrition assignments we have to keep a food journal and then do some analyses and break it down into what we should really be eating, and I can already tell my diet will be totally 'wrong'! And sadly I'll have to waste time making up a new diet I 'should be' following, according to the good ol' USDA. Clearly a paleo lifestyle does not ft in with their GRAINS, GRAINS, GRAINS mentality!

And this is where the * comes in. I'M HAVING AN EDUCATIONAL CRISIS. When I was planning to go to med school (before I decided raising a family is a better idea) I got insanely stoked on all the science classes I'd have to take. So much chemistry and biology and genetics! Most people would want to avoid that, but honestly, I love it so so much. Then I decided to do nursing, and all those classes screeched to a halt. This is my last semester taking a science class and last week as I sat in lecture, with my heart pounding from excitement when my teacher said we'd be learning a lot about genetics this semester, I got so incredibly sad that this would be my last semester with classes like this. Like ridiculously, embarrassingly, sad. And then my teacher talked about all the fun things he does in his lab and I was so jelly. I want to do that! And then (another and then) I babysat for some friends whose baby has a certain medical condition, so I was reading up on it and once again realized how much I love genetics and everything that goes along with it.

Which leads me to this: Is nursing right for me? Is a more science based field right for me? (And duh, I know nursing is science based, but you know what I mean, right?) I know I would love being a nurse and don't doubt that, but on the other hand I love science a lot. And if I pursued a science degree, what would I even do? This is too many questions to ask myself when I haven't even had time to think about what I'm making for dinner.

So there's that. Maybe I should rename this blog "Steffani can't decide on anything", ya?

To end this, I felt like I needed a picture, so here. This guy was taking pictures of other people in white suits acting like swimming fish when I went on vacation a couple weeks ago. So weird. More vacation pictures to come!

7 comments:

  1. Embrace your nerd!! :D I loved being in school, and sometimes wish I could take classes again.

    I will practice Spanish with you!! Call me anytime you want to chat.

    One thing to think about in your edcational crisis is that you will love your science classes (and they will go on for a really long time if you become a doctor). But once your education is over, being a doctor and being a nurse will be very similar in several ways. You'll deal with patients. You'll have to rely on your education. And you'll have opportunities and reasons to continue doing your own learning in the sciences. So don't let the classes decide everything.

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    1. I'll definitely take you up on it once we learn more Spanish!

      If I stayed with science classes, I still wouldn't go to med school, but would explore things out of direct medical care, so things like lab work, testing, etc. But I think I'll stick with nursing for now!

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  2. Welcome back! I am a medical technologist and work in a lab. A lot of the classes I had in college were the same as nursing students. With my degree (4 years) I can do DNA testing. A friend I went to school with got her masters in Molecular genetics, which is a hugely growing field. You should look into it! Oh, and nerds rule!
    -Emily

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    1. Thannnnks! That jobs sounds awesome! And I'll definitely look in to molecular genetics...that sounds fascinating!

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  3. It's great to see you back Steff ^_^

    School stuff is always tricky but it's so good that you're thinking about what you want to do -past- school already (when I went to university, I wasn't encouraged to think about a career at all and ended up with a very good but not at all useful degree). And don't forget, you don't ever have to stop learning and being involved with science! I've been thinking about going back to school myself but all the course options are boggling >.<

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    1. Thanks! :) Glad to be back.

      You're right, I need to remember that I never have to stop being involved in science! I can always find side jobs or continue taking classes as I want. That would be fun for you to try school here in America!!

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  4. These are some big decisions... Maybe you need some more time to think about it? But try to follow your heart - I know you can achieve anything! :)

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