Week in My Life

Hello my lovely readers!

This week was my first real week of my Spring semester, (considering that last week was syllabus week and we had snow days) and so I wanted to show you all a look at my week and let you know how this semester has been going so far. At this point it shouldn't be surprising that I have already been busy and that I have a lot to share ;)

Hope you enjoy reading!

My weekly schedule, read below for more details

Monday Feb 4th

I was excited and nervous all day. Today was my Gemstone research proposal defense and I was one of the presenters. This was a huge step in our research process, the proposal defense involved us presenting our ideas then answering questions from a panel including our mentor, expert in the field, our librarian, and the Gemstone staff. Overall they had positive feedback about our project, our goal is to study the allergic response pathway and to inhibit molecules in the pathway in order to decrease degranulation and hopefully reduce allergic response symptoms. Now our team is preparing to start our experiments in lab and begin fundraising efforts to fund our research.

I wore this top and blazer from T's Closet SXM

Later that day, I got an email that a website called College Entrepreneur 101 chose my blog to add to their list of "Top 15 College Blogs to Follow." I am still so shocked that someone noticed my blog and decided to include it. It was the perfect boost of motivation to keep posting content! Here is the description they wrote about my blog:

Tuesday, Feb 5th

Top: Forever 21 Skirt: Gap

Tuesday was an interesting day because it was 70 degrees in February. I took the opportunity to switch up my wardrobe from the typical winter outfits. I paired my cute heart sweater with my leather skirt and I love how it was kinda like sweet and sexy contrasting each other.

First I had my math class and then I had my first organic chemistry 2 class but it was only for a check in, I met my new classmates and we were all equally excited to start our experiments. I really enjoyed my organic chemistry lab that I took last semester so I am really looking forward to this course. I just feel so amazing when I'm in my lab coat performing experiments. Afterwards I went to the library for a few hours until my sociology class where we learned about some social theories such as Karl Marx and and Max Webber.

I was really excited for sociology mainly because of how much I looooved my psychology class, I think sociology is a really important topic and I completed understand why it is required for pre-medical students to take the course because you can't treat patients if you don't understand how society affects the lives of each person. This course will discuss many topics, I am most looking forward to discussing race and immigration as those affect me personally. So far the class has been a little dull and underwhelming but I'm hoping that it will improve as we dive into the content more.

I finished the day by doing some studying and preparing for my classes.

Wednesday, Feb 6th

Wednesday was a busy day, I went for a casual look: jeans, sweater, cardigan, and a top bun

So Wednesday was my busiest day of the week, I had back to back meetings all week. First I started with an 8am meeting with the Gemstone staff and fellow student leaders where we discussed upcoming events. Then I hurried off to my math discussion followed by another meeting for Gems100 Steering Committee where we discussed some recruitment details. Next I went straight to my biology lecture and then to lunch followed directly by my french lecture and organic chemistry lectures.

I also had the great opportunity of meeting this lovely young lady that I am mentoring, we chatted about college, pre-med, and life in general. I always feel so great when I am able to help others, even if its just from sharing my experience. Then I went to my Gemstone team's meeting. After that I studied for a few hours before calling it a night.

So it might be an understatement to say that my day was busy but I love busy days because they make me feel really productive and I just get such a boost. I just know when I am in medical school I'm going to be the type of student who has a packed schedule all the time.

Thursday Feb 7th

Got many compliments on my dress, it was a hand-me down from my aunt!

My Thursday was also pretty busy, I started the day out with my math lecture which was....interesting. The math I am taking is called Discrete Mathematics for the Life Sciences and it is pretty much statistics and learning how to analyze data that we might collect in labs. Although the concepts aren't complex the class is a bit tedious because we have to do the calculations by hand instead of simply using a computer, which is what actual biologist would do. Other than that the class is fine, I don't have graded homework which is helpful since my semester is really busy.

After class I went to the second look fair in Stamp which was basically an event where the organizations on campus had booths set up and students could learn about the hundreds of student orgs on campus. I spent about two hours at the event working for Charles R Drew Pre-Health Society (CRD), while I was there talking to pre-health students I couldn't help but think about how a year ago I was new to this university and searching for organizations too, it's crazy to think about how fast time goes by.

Once I was done with classes for the day I prepared for CRD'S first event of the semester. The E-board wore business causal as you see from my outfit above. Our first GBM was a lecture from Atlantis, a company which provides clinical shadowing opportunities abroad. We discussed the importance of shadowing and clinical hours on your medical school application, this is something I haven't been able to do yet but hopefully I will be starting this summer. (Btw if you're a UMD pre-health student and you're not a part of CRD you're missing out)

Friday, Feb 8th

It's Friday! I had to put together a cute fit

Finally Friday! I started my day off with yet another meeting. This meeting was to discuss my role as Director of Strategic Outreach for the Gemstone program and I am really excited for the projects I'll be working on this semester. After that I grabbed a coffee and a croissant for breakfast and headed to my lectures. Once I was out of my last class of the day I simply couldn't believe how quickly the week had gone by! It was quite a week and I knew I had to write a blog on it. I ended my week by taking a few pictures:

Overall I am happy to say that this semester has gone off to a great start! As I look at the upcoming weeks it is going to get more challenging. By the end of this month I'll have three exams in the same week....yeah it's gonna be hard. But I am trying my best to stay organized, focused, and positive. I am excited to bring you all along with my on the journey. Hope you liked this in-depth look at my week.