No more mcatty!

It's finally over. Today was my first day of real freedom; yesterday was spent moving my belongings out of Davis. Hooray!

Befuddled

Alright, this is an incident that's been on my mind for over a month now (since it happened) and in the interest of not being repetitive in my posts, I've avoided saying anything but now I can't help it anymore. My parents were talking about my brother getting married, and they mentioned that they don't want him to marry a girl who's pursuing medicine because it'd take too long for her to get settled, and it's just not worth the wait. Now, you readers should know by now that I'm pursuing medicine. So I was sitting there listening to this and I was like "Umm... hello?"

They turned to me and responded, "Don't worry, we'll find you a nice doctor boy who will understand what you're doing."

Uhh, right. So I'm not really sure when educational pursuits became an issue that only certain people could "understand" according to my parents. My dad didn't finish school until his late 20's, but I guess that's different because....

What?

This makes no sense. I was taken aback by this; my parents are the last people I expected to say such a thing. Understand what I'm doing? What?... Now I don't want to marry a doctor, just to spite them. I know, I'm quite grown up.

I had a good weekend.

Progress...?

August 2: I started an exam written by a private prep company. I should've looked at it more thoroughly before I purchased it; the format was wack and the questions were ridiculously difficult - way beyond the scope of the mcat. I got frustrated about halfway through the first section because I was so caught off guard, and I stopped the exam and dismissed it and the other two written by that company for simulation purposes. They will now be used as practice problems.

August 4: Halfway through the exam, I realized I had taken it before. It got to the point where I recognized passages and recalled answers from memory, so I stopped taking this one too.

Plans for today's exam have been delayed. In its place I began an intense material review curriculum, through which I should be done with all MCAT material by the end of Monday and resume testing on Tuesday, August 8th.

Timeline

Here's the plan:

August 2: Practice test
August 4: Practice test
August 6: Practice test
August 7: Practice test
August 8: Practice test
August 9: Practice test
August 10: Practice test
August 11: Practice test
August 12: Practice test
August 13: Practice test
August 14: Practice test
August 15: Practice test
August 16: Practice test

August 19: MCAT

I'll keep y'all posted on each one....

Goodbye, Davis

After a couple of pretty emotional farewell-filled days, I managed to pick up most of my essentials and leave Davis once and for all. Until I go back to get the rest of my crap, anyway. It's official now: I no longer work in a pulmonary research lab on campus, I no longer live in a house way too big for only two people with only one other person, I no longer have the roommate I've had for the past three years, and I will never have classes with any of my UC Davis friends again. My parking permit, however, is still valid for a few more days.

My first coupla days in San Jose were pretty miserable, however, I'm enjoying the very pleasant weather and the non-carcinogenic water has done wonders for my hair. I'm still getting used to not having friends within 5 minutes of me, but with the bastard MCAT I wouldn't have time for them anyway, so I guess it's not so bad at all.

Waiting to Exhale

I've started partaking in a 20 minute pilates work out each morning, as of last Wednesday. On Saturday, I added a 30 minute cardio routine afterwards. The routine is slowly getting better. On the first day of pilates, I literally flailed my appendages recklessly around the floor. Now, I am more coordinated. I'm definitely feeling better after starting all this, and I am awaiting the day that I look better too. I looked at my stomach in the mirror the other day and thought, "Well now, that's not so bad." But then I exhaled. Dammit. One day...