Typically, the cold weather doesn’t bother me too much. However, it has gotten VERY cold here! We have a good amount of snow, which I think is really pretty. With biase, I admit that the only reason I find the snow nice is because I don’t have to worry about commuting in it. Have I mentioned how awesome it is to live on campus? I know, I know, I have mentioned it in most of my blog posts...

Winter break was wonderful, and greatly needed!  After final exams were over, I did something new. Instead of rushing home to Maryland, I relaxed for a couple days in Illinois.  I caught up on my sleep, which I’m sad to admit had been greatly lacking the weeks leading up to exams. I went on a hike with a couple classmates and our puppies; and we just hung out thinking about the year we just had. We survived the first year! 

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!

Thanksgiving was this week, so I thought I would make a traditional post about some of the things I am thankful for. Consider yourself warned, some of this will be super cliché. 

School is hard. Each trimester is 15 weeks, and unfortunately, life outside of school doesn’t actually stop, even if it sometimes feels like it does while we are fully focused on school for 15 weeks at a time. 

These last couple of weeks have been super fun, super stressful, but all around awesome! A couple weeks ago, we had Naturopathic Medicine Week. Our school competed hard, under the leadership of our chapter president Janice, who organized what seemed like a thousand events to help our school earn points in the national competition where we competed against the other schools.

I have so much to blog about! It has been a crazy couple weeks of midterms (with what seems like no end in sight). But, in between some of the craziness, there have been some exciting events taking place on campus!

I am going to take this time to remind myself, along with everyone else who needs it, of the best study advice I have ever received: Take time for yourself! 

I can’t even count the number of times I have been asked, “What is Naturopathic Medicine?” 

My name is Belinda, but I prefer to go by Lindy. I am entering my third trimester as a Naturopathic Medical student at National University of Health Sciences. I’m originally from Maryland and will always consider it to be my home.