White Coat Ceremony Weekend

This past weekend was awesome. My wonderful family all drove up to support me and this big life step and it was a great time. I get tearful thinking about it, because this is such a HUGE accomplishment that I know I couldn't have gotten to without God and the love and support of my family. I am so so so so blessed.

After the Dean of the medical school said a few words and introductions, the keynote speaker, a pediatrician, asked us "who will you be?". She said that people have been asking us "what will you be?" for years and we have said "doctor", but now it is time to take that further. What kind of person will we be? What kind of doctor will we be? Integrity, honesty, and respect were some of the themes that came up, and she closed with a quote from her favorite doctor - Dr. Seuss :-)

"Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go...

Kid, you’ll move mountains!
So…be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray or Mordecai Ale Van Allen O’Shea, you’re off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So…get on your way!"

-Oh! The Places You'll Go

We were then "coated" (my pic even made the Indy paper!) and recited the physicians oath - promising to put others before ourselves and to use our knowledge for the improvement of humanity. After that I was inspired and ready to get down to business.

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On Sunday, we said our goodbyes as our loved ones returned to their respective homes. Pumpkin also went on a mini-vacay with Hubby's mom. I was so emotional when he left. He kept smiling and waving at us from his car seat saying, "byeee! byeee!" as they pulled off. I was an emotional mess...you would have thought he had never went somewhere without me before...LOL

To end the night, the Hubs and I went to our new favorite Indy spot and watched the sunset :-)

White Coat Ceremony - More The Indianapolis Star Galleries

View this gallery at The Indianapolis Star: White Coat Ceremony

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Today was more orientation and our first anatomy lecture and lab. It was good :-D The rest of the week we are learning basic clinical skills along with anatomy lectures and lab, and next week we will jump into the regularly scheduled program...which means these posts will become a little more infrequent...LOL

First Day as an M1

So yesterday was orientation part 1!! It was really nice and VERY informative. After checking in there was a bunch of random logistical stuff we had to get done - like buying our first course packets (sidenote:...my gross anatomy course packet is huge and is for the FIRST EXAM ONLY...well Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore...), and then we received many warm welcomes and a brief introduction to some classes, more financial aid info, and some self-inventory activities.

Even though I have spent the last year in the medical science building and there were many familiar faces, I approached everything like new. This time I have a locker and a mailbox by the M1s :-D I have classes in a new auditorium , and anatomy lab is HUGE....six students to a cadaver and there are like 170 students in the lab...whew...

At lunch there was an activities fair (a waaay smaller version of Diag Day at Michigan, but it was still great) and you could sign up for different interest groups related to specialties you might be interested in, diversity orgs, women's orgs, Christian orgs, outreach clinics, etc. I feel like I got on too many listservs, but everything sounded great LOL...

The speakers/faculty yesterday definitely put things back into perspective for me. Despite the nervousness for the year, I mustn't (spell check said that's right :-P) forget that I am doing this to make a difference in this world, to help to save lives, and to touch families...I am so excited that I am getting closer and closer to realizing my dream :tear:

Today is more orientation this morning, family orientation for the hubs, and later, the much anticipated white coat ceremony!! stay tuned!