Surprising my family for Thanksgiving was amazing! My parents were SUPER surprised, as were my nieces and nephew. I didn’t realize how much I needed some family time until I was there and able to enjoy it for a couple days. While I did get a lot of studying done while I was home, I was able to relax and visit quite a bit as well. I bought my nieces and nephew a couple games to play (that are a little noisy, so I knew their parents would never purchase them). I bought Hungry Hippo and Operation. We had a blast playing the two games!
I was originally scheduled to fly out super early Monday morning, but Southwest notified me late Saturday that I needed to move my flight due to some bad weather being forecast in Chicago. I moved it to Sunday evening. However, on Sunday morning, I received notification that my flight had already been cancelled, and the next available flight wasn’t until Tuesday afternoon. I could not miss classes both Monday and Tuesday! So, my dad decided to drive me back on Sunday, all the way from Maryland. While it was not the plan, it was wonderful getting some one-on-one time with my daddy. Being one of six kids, one-on-one time with our parents is a rare and very special occasion! But if I’m being honest, I am my daddy’s favorite, so I think he was happy to get some one-on-one time with me as well.
Since I am already talking about my daddy, let me tell you something that is super cute. He is growing out his beard and his hair, so he can dress up as Santa for the grandkids. My dad is usually the stereotypical Harley Bike riding dad…shaved head, and a goatee. It was a little strange for me to see him with hair! He has more hair than I would have expected! He started shaving his head about 15 years ago because he was going bald anyway, so we are all really surprised with how much hair he actually has!
We made it back to the Chicago area without any problems. Thankfully, we didn’t even hit bad weather until the final 20 miles of our 800-mile trip! My dad was able to stay for a day, which was nice, since I didn’t really want him to drive on the icy roads. The roads were bad enough on Monday that they even cancelled school! When we were driving to pick up my puppy from the dog sitter, a blizzard warning popped up on the car. I had never seen that before!
Now we are in week 14 of the trimester, and finals are already underway. While most of the final exams take place during week 15 of the trimester, our practical exams are usually during week 14. I already took my Neuroanatomy practical and it went GREAT! Fingers crossed my others go just as well. This was a tough trimester for me, and my grades have not been what I have become accustomed to. But sometimes you just need to keep your head up, dig deep, and push through. In less than three years, I will be done, and will probably think it all flew by. I keep telling myself, that I’m “gonna” miss this season of my life one day. I love how fortunate I am to dive in head first, and fully focus all my attention on school. Not everyone gets opportunities like the ones I have been afforded, and being here and in this program is one of the many blessings in my life.
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