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 two weeks have been a painful reminder of that fact to me. I lost a college friend to cancer two weeks ago. Less than a week later, I lost another friend (also my age) suddenly. As I have mourned the loss of my friends, I have tried my best to keep up with my studies. It is not always easy to balance life with school, and these two weeks have taken a very emotional toll on me. While I know these circumstances are extreme, I also know that there will be personal and emotional life events getting in the way again within my next few years. As difficult as it is, it is important to stay focused and remember why we are here…we all have a reason and a purpose for taking on a program this difficult, and the reminder is sometimes necessary to keep going.

On top of the personal life happenings these last couple weeks, I have been bracing myself for the dreaded week 10 exams. I am thankful to have so many friends in the program to study with, cry with, and to bring me joy while we are going through stress. Today in yoga club, we will be doing a few minutes of laughter yoga. I can’t think of a better way to help with the stress, than to laugh some of it out with a bunch of people going through similar circumstances. 

In happier news, I received a new toy this week! At the beginning of the trimester, I organized a group of students to place a group order of portable chiropractic tables. I had done a lot of research, and decided I wanted a Thuli Table. They are made in the USA (Wisconsin). Founder, Dr. Rick Thuli personally inspects every table that is shipped out. As a Doctor of Chiropractic (DC), Dr. Thuli coupled his first-hand knowledge of chiropractic techniques with his creative understanding of the design process to create a line of products that are unparalleled. 

We needed at least 10 orders to hit the student discount we were hoping for, and we had 12! I, for one, am super excited to play with my new table, and work on perfecting some of the physical medicine adjusting techniques that I view as being a very important modality in Naturopathic Medicine. I went with a custom color (Wedgewood is the official color, but it is a light blue). I couldn’t be happier!

While my living room is currently full of the tables (everyone will be picking them up in the next few days), I don’t mind, since I love staring at them. Here are some photos from Thuli, can you spot my pretty blue one? One of the other student bloggers, Sarah, has the pretty green one! I’m nearly certain I will have additional posts in the future about how awesome my table is, and how helpful it is in practicing and studying.