Saturday, September 25, 2010

Senior Year

To those in the family who are not on Facebook/still check the blog, this is for you.

My roommate Carl and I have moved into our new apartment (pictures below), and my class schedule is a little different than usual. I have only one traditional class- biochemistry- which has midterms and quizzes. I have an advanced chemistry laboratory course that occupies my afternoons on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I am also beginning an independent study project that counts for a credit each quarter that I am involved in it. The ultimate goal is to complete a scientific project for myself, hopefully produce a senior thesis, graduate with honors, and put a nice capstone on my Northwestern career. This year has a different feel academically to my previous years at Northwestern. I'm excited to get things underway.

In the medical school admissions process, I am between application submission and waiting for interview offers. I currently have three interview offers (St. Louis, University of Illinois, and Case Western), the earliest of which is on Oct. 12, when I will driving down to St. Louis. This is all also very exciting. I am only looking for an opportunity to start another journey, although I am trying to not look ahead too far too soon.

Below are some of the pictures of our apartment. Please keep in mind that we are still in the process of decorating. I look forward to seeing most of the family next weekend.

Matt



Sunday, September 19, 2010

some new reading material

Hello!

So, since there seems to be a demand for more posts and it looks like I haven't posted in almost a year (what?? i know, crazy) AND because I should be studying, I decided that it is about time for an update of my life.

My second year here at SLU and in St. Louis is so far, so good. As you all do or should know, I am repeating the first year curriculum in order to make up for the classes that I didn't do well in/didn't take last year. Therefore, I am in human anatomy again. It is going much better this time, judging by my grade on the first exam, and hopefully this post won't be too long and I will get back to studying for my second exam! I am understanding everything better this time around and I actually like it a lot more.
The new class has a different personality than my old class, and I haven't quite figured them out yet. I am slowly finding my place and I have made a few new friends. I am running for a class officer position in order to really feel like I belong in this class. If I get it, I will be a Community Service Coordinator, so I will seek out and inform everyone about community service opportunities around town. I am also already a co-leader of an interest group called Child Abuse Prevention where we go to elementary schools and teach children about which kinds of interactions are okay and who you can trust to tell about any uncomfortable situations. In addition to those things, I also volunteer at our student-run clinic where we take histories, vital signs, give advice, (there's a doctor to prescribe medications and do physical exams), give vaccines and do blood draws. The phlebotomy (blood work) is actually my favorite part, although I do enjoy talking to the patients as well.

As for the non-SLU part of my life, I am overall very happy. I live in a duplex house with two friends from last year (my previous roommate Bethany, our two cats, and our guy friend Chris). It is going even better than I anticipated, which is such a relief. I am still seeing Mike, and we make as much time for each other as we can, whether it's meeting at the gym for an hour or setting up a date night to make dinner or see a movie. My days are usually busy and even my downtime has to be penciled in.

Since camp slaw I have had several visitors. Right afterward, my mom and paige drove me back here, my best friend from home, Erica, came for a weekend, and my dad came for Labor Day/my birthday weekend, which were all lots of fun! I am very excited that Matt has an interview here and is going to be visiting for a couple days! It'll be exam week again, so he will get to see what med school is really like, lucky guy :) Of course we will squeeze in some time to tour the city and probably get some St. Louis BBQ or pizza thrown in there!

That's about it! I'll throw in a couple pictures just for fun, but I suppose I should get back to learning/memorizing the countless parts of the head and neck!my roommates (being silly)

mike and me


family visiting!



Love you all and hope everything is going well for you too!

Kim

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

What has happened to our wonderful blog?
I miss having frequent posts!

Friday, September 03, 2010

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESSIE!!!!!!

Jessie, We hope that you have a wonderful birthday! Do something fun to celebrate!!!! With lots of love, Aunt Jeri

Thursday, September 02, 2010

Happy Birthday Devin!




Happy Birthday Devin. Enjoy the Spanish-themed ballon. Hope you have a great day!

Matt

Wednesday, September 01, 2010

Happy Birthday Kim!


Have a great day! Enjoy the balloon. Hopefully everything is going well at school.

Matt