Eight years ago, I decided to begin this journey. I have always said that I did it for my family, that I wanted to create a future for us that would have otherwise been intangible given the circumstances of my life, but that was only a partial truth. I needed to do this for me, to meet the goals long forgotten, that I had always held for myself. 

When you come to the end of your time at the National University clinic, there are two options you can choose from to enhance your learning further. One being a preceptorship, where you go and work under the license of a chiropractor in their clinic. The other is a 2-week observation where you can visit a practicing doctor's office and shadow them as they work. In the preceptorship, you can do any tasks that the supervising doctor is comfortable with you completing. Most preceptorships begin at the start of 10th trimester; however, there are some really cool, more competitive opportunities like clerkships in VA hospitals that will take students during their 9th trimester.

After taking six exams in six months--seven in total, factoring the part 1 chiropractic boards which seemed to have happened ages ago--I feel like I have learned a thing or two about taking tests, and thought I would share some of my best tips: 

All of the things that I have been nurturing are beginning to bear fruit, both literally and figuratively. While I should be studying for boards, I could not let all of the tasty fruit go to waste. Because the results were so delicious, I decided to share the recipe with you all. 

I have been a busy little bee these past two weeks. It all began with part II boards the weekend before last. After taking all of the exams that I have up until this point, I have found that no amount of preparation helps me to feel better about taking the test itself. While I am sure everything went ok, I won’t know for a month, and that in itself is nerve-racking. With that done, parts III and IV are coming up fast, but I chose not to spend too much time studying this past week. I will be back at it again, though, in a day or two. Our clinicians have shifted some of our assignments to be more focused on material that we need to know for boards, so that has been helpful.

It is easy to get mentally overwhelmed; given all that is going on in current events, people need outlets to improve their psychological health. I find myself wondering what kind of atmosphere I will be walking into when I begin to see patients again, so finding ways to help that can fit into the new norm of social distancing has become imperative. Spending time outdoors in the garden is the one thing that has helped me the most over the last few weeks. Since National prides itself on evidence-based care, I was curious to see what current research has to say about gardening and health outcomes.

It's the start of my very last term at National University. When August rolls around, I will have completed my third and final degree. Everything is falling into place. Epidemic and all, I have started to set up one of the spaces that I will be practicing in. A notification came earlier this month, letting us know that all of the board exams that had been postponed in the spring are rescheduled. They will all be stacked up on top of each other this summer. I can plan on being stressed out with preparations from now until mid-July and will involve traveling to Davenport, Iowa, twice between now and then.

This is my last post before beginning my last trimester of school. But some days, having the ability of executive function is a struggle. To remain motivated, I have been putting a lot of time into learning something new every day beyond school requirements. There are so many free resources available to do this! Right now, my focus is on improving my Spanish, which I’m achieving with the Babble app, as well as watching Spanish television shows. While I don't think that the language used in Diablero is really appropriate for conversations with patients, it is improving my ability to listen and comprehend.

The world is a very strange place right now. I wish I could tell all of you lovely readers how stellar things are going, but they are not. You know what? That is perfectly ok. Feeling abnormal is a normal response to a situation as abnormal as the one that we are in now. School has always given me something to focus on outside of myself. Now that the only option is to slow down and focus inward on the life I have before me, I am experiencing some growing pains.

Well, here you have it, one of what I am sure are many accounts of what people are experiencing while sheltering at home during a COVID-19 outbreak. The clinic closed its doors midway through last week, and all classes have been moved into an online format.