It's the end of another term. This trimester is a little bit more special than most, you see, last Friday was my last MSAc class ever, and next Thursday will be my final, final exam. I have spent a lot of time tying up loose ends in the previous few weeks. On top of all the things, I am graduating with my Masters of Science in Acupuncture this week…Yay! The feeling is surreal, I mean, I am not done yet, I will still be here at school for another eight months as I finish up the Chiropractic program, but I feel like I have been working toward my goals for so long that I am not sure how I feel about completing one of them. The best part of all of this is that I will be able to spend time with my family in just a few short weeks. Mom guilt has been a big part of my life as I was taking time from them to pursue my own goals, but I'm starting to see the result of all of the work, and I am excited about our futures.

It's the holiday season, and if you have left you home anytime in the last few weeks, I am sure that you have been inundated with messages about thankfulness and giving. Some of these messages come from a consumer-driven place, but leaving that aside, giving to others, and practicing gratitude can be a huge benefit to your mental and emotional health. Some studies show that focusing on what you are grateful for can result in a myriad of health-related changes such as lowering blood pressure, improved sleep, lower incidence of depression, and even weight loss (the thought being that the patients in the study were better able to determine when they were satiated).  

This trimester specifically has had a lot of "really useful for life" coursework, learning about things like risk management and business ethics. As one of the requirements for class this trimester, we are supposed to have our business plan evaluated by someone in the field of business, accounting, or banking to judge whether or not it is financially sound. I should add for those of you who have not started your student journey or would like to know we have going on in the curriculum for our professional programs, that by this point in the game, we already have a few business classes under our belts.

Because of this, I have a collection of documents from class assignments that all have some purpose for life outside of school. It has now been a year since I first put together my business and marketing plans, and let me tell you, looking at them now, they say almost nothing about the type of practice that I want to create. I cannot believe how much the idea of what I want to do has changed in such a short time. Being in the clinic has had the most influence on my change of heart; it's funny what a little bit of experience can do!

This past week I got to go on a short trip to a fabulous and exotic location: Wisconsin. I promise you that it was way more exciting than it sounds! As students, we get a lot of information on different supplement companies and the products that they carry; this was one of those opportunities. Standard Process, a whole food nutritional supplement company, invited students out to visit its manufacturing plant and farming operation, so that we could all get a behind the scenes peek into what goes into making their products. 

Well, I haven't written about food in a bit, and there has been so much cooking going on at home lately that I felt that I would share with you all. As we are entering the fall, my crop share is providing me with different vegetables, so I have been playing around with delicata, acorn, and spaghetti squash.

Over this last school break, I attend a five-day seminar in a massage technique that I have been interested in for a long time. It was the first time that this course was offered in America, and since I have been looking at it, the timing of things couldn't be more perfect.  As students, we can get discounted rates on most post-graduate education. This is beneficial as we shape our knowledge to fit the way that we hope to practice. There are just too many seminars and too little time!

It has finally happened: I am in the clinic seeing chiropractic patients! This has been a long time coming, and I live with a visual depiction of exactly how long I have been back in school as I watch my daughter grow. I came to National to finish up my prerequisites with a 5-month-old squishy little baby in tow, and now she is a 5-year-old, super-sassy Kindergartener. It is incredible to see how much we both have grown.

Last week was week 14, the second last of the trimester, and I just finished (almost!) what every responsible student should have been doing: moving to a new home.

It's midway through summer, and I have been getting my crop share for a few weeks now. Overall, I have been pretty happy with the selection that I have been getting in my boxes. When you don't personally pick out your produce, you are left with the creative task of figuring out what to do with vegetables that you might not typically work with. There have been all sorts of tasty tidbits included in my share: rainbow chard, kale, cucumbers, assorted lettuces, beets, kohlrabi, snap peas, turnips, and so much garlic. For as much as I love garlic, I found myself with more than I knew what to do with. Some of it made its way into jars to infuse olive oil with its delicious flavor. 

It’s week 11, and I just registered for classes for the last time! We just went through the selection process for the clinician whom we will be working under for the next year in the clinic. It was a hot topic all week last week, with everyone trying to find out who everyone else was going to be picking, and hoping that there would still be room on the shift that they wanted.