Prompt 11 Alternative


While this year was a difficult year, I wouldn't say all was lost for me. While I did lose out on a lot of opportunities (volunteering, shadowing, etc.) that I was going to do to help me prepare for my medical school application, it ended up giving me a well needed expanse of time that I could spend at home to focus on studying the MCAT instead. Since no hospitals were offering opportunities (which makes sense in consideration of the patients and the medical staff), I had no choice but to give my undivided attention to the MCAT. Also, the MCAT was shortened, which was great since the length of time was so crazy to stay focused for (from 7 hours and 30 mins to 5 hours and 45 mins). I didn't realize how well and how long I could study until this past summer, which helped rid me of some of my own personal misconceptions of myself and my ability to focus. I think I was stretched so thin with all of the classes I took that I thought I had an inability to retain information well. It turns out that I am not as bad at studying that I thought I was. I know some people had difficulty with the online format, but honestly, I did a lot better with the switch online. I found that with little distractions in the classroom, I was quite good at studying. Of course, I missed the personal connections I had with others. But there was quite a difference in my concentration.

It was also the first summer of college that I was able to stay at home since I wasn't doing research or an internship, so I got to bond with my younger siblings a lot. I spent a lot of good quality time with my siblings that I didn't have before, and it made me really happy. We made a lot of good memories together and had a lot of fun at night when the three of us were done studying for the day. We learned a lot of recipes from the homeland together, played games, and watched a lot of Korean dramas and anime, so that was one good thing that came out of the pandemic. I got to show them shows that I loved to watch, so it was fun to connect with them. It hit me that I missed out on a lot of the formative years of their life (since I have a five and eight year age gap between me and them) because I was always busy getting ready for college or medical school, so honestly, it was a good time of reflection since I had not been at our new home more than three weeks since I had left for college. I had always talked to my older sister, but I realized that I had allowed time and distance to be between me and my younger siblings. 

Made a condensed milk cake and introduced them to The Last Airbender :D

This past year changed me for the better since it showed me how tweaking the way I spend my time can help my studying and my personal life. I am much better at blocking out my time now, so it was nice to take this time and slow down for a little and prioritize my own mental health and my family. Of course there were obstacles in my life as well throughout this pandemic; many difficult things out of my control occurred, but I disagree that this was a lost year. 

Comments

  1. Erin JonesApril 30, 2021 at 9:58 AM

    One thing I've learned is that you never have as much time as you think you do with the people you love. Spend as much time with family as possible. Good luck with MCAT stuff!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Prompt 2.1

Image
 What I prediction I chose to base my example around was species changing through time (microevolution). The example I chose was the evolution of MRSA. I think this example is interesting as it bears a similarity as to why researchers are anticipating COVID-19 to evolve. MRSA can be a good example of microevolution as one dominant strain, healthcare associated MRSA (HA-MRSA) type ST239, has been evolving locally at hospitals and reaching global proportions as it gains antibiotic resistance. Now, why specifically is it this strain that is important? The reason why this strain is integral is in part due to its environment. Hospitals often are able to have access to higher-end treatments, such as antibiotics. The frequent usage of antibiotics, especially in cases of over-prescription or unfinished treatment, gives bacteria an opportunity to adapt. As a result, HA-MRSA is able to evolve at a rapid pace due to an increased exposure to antibiotics than it would encounter in most environm...
Read more

Intro

 My name is Joanne, and I am from Salina, KS. I have moved around quite a bit within Kansas, but that is the place of my current residence. I am really passionate about Psychology. Psychology really attracted me because there are aspects of it that can apply as a social science and as a "hard science" such as biology or chemistry. Psychology was a field that was interesting to me since I found myself between those two subject matters when I was trying to decide what my major should be. As someone who wants to go into the healthcare field, I think important to balance those two perspective as the scientific side of things can be sometimes more emphasized that the more relational aspects when it comes to being a doctor. I am currently in a neuroscience lab that studies the interaction of environmental conditioning on addiction, and the research has really opened my as to how much that lifestyles we were raised in can play a factor in our brains.  I think evolution/biology is fa...
Read more

Prompt 4.2

I definitely didn't realize how many moving parts and misunderstandings that I had about evolution. I suppose I shouldn't have counted on the wisdom of high school and introductory biology classes to define fitness or natural selection correctly, but to each their own. I feel like even talking about basic things like fact vs theory or realizing that not all natural selections lead to evolution caused me to realize that this class is going to teach me a lot more than I realized.  Going back to the first blog post, as I mentioned, I think that realizing that not all natural selection has to lead to evolution was different. I think I get a bit hazy with the terms in general, but once we were given a visual, such as we did with fitness, I understood what is trying to be said more.  I am definitely still struggling with the R Studio, but I think with more practice it will come more naturally. Once someone explains it to me, I feel a bit dumb because quite often the solution is simp...
Read more