Time marches on. In a week it will be the end of another trimester. In a few weeks, the end to another month, and shortly after to that, another whole year. The end of this year will be an end to a decade. While much in life does not depend on deadlines and specific dates, at the end of the spring 2020 trimester, I will be with the many students ending their journey at National with commencement.

សូមអរគុណ (Saum Arkoun) – Khmer

I will bet at least a few times in life you have been asked what you wanted to be when you grow up. I know that I have! The last couple of weeks have been filled with so many eye-openers—reassurances actually—that I am on the right path for me.

While taking a break from my acupuncture studies recently, it occurred to me that cleaning just seems to be the main event for me these past couple of weeks. The house has been neglected for almost a year. TCM books and notes seem to migrate out of the study room via mobs of secret ninjas on their missions for me to be the Silent Sensei Acupuncturist.

It’s already Week 5 of the fall trimester, and it's the preliminary challenge to see if everyone is going to be staying in the class or not. It feels like just yesterday I experienced this for the first time. I was freaking out about my first exam to see if I had a passing grade and would continue in the class.

It is my sixth trimester and it’s just the beginning of the new trimester for the of fall 2019...then one more trimester...just one more!

Here it went: Week 15. This has been finals week for many and for me, coming to the end of my fifth trimester for the Master of Acupuncture program! The decision wasn’t that easy for me to transition from the Master of Oriental Medicine program to solely the Master of Acupuncture program, but the support from my deans, professors, and classmates have given me hope. Instead of finishing nine trimesters at National, it will shorten my studies to only seven trimesters. Not many things that we would like to have in life will go the way we planned. In any part or aspect of life, there will be ups and downs, but in the end, making the right choices is what’s best for your highest good.

This past week I had the greatest experience attending my first birth as a doula!

There are so many things happening in life, and we need to understand that they’re not all under our control. I am one of those who puts every detail of my life in my phone and paper calendars--especially the academic countdown to when I graduate!

I am nearing the halfway point! In about a year, I will be done with the MSOM program at NUHS. Honest truth: it wasn’t easy to get this far, and many times I have wanted to give up and go back to the hospital working at my old job. Even though there are other programs at National everyone says are more difficult (the Doctorate of Chiropractic, or Doctor of Naturopathic medicine), I can both agree and disagree.