Is your respective semester how you anticipated it to be? Is it easier? Is it harder? What do you enjoy most about what you are learning about right now?
I am a sophomore 1 this semester and it definitely is not how I thought it would be, to say the least. I remember last year when I saw the sophomores wearing their white scrubs for the first time taking pictures in front of Cowell Hall, I thought at that time with my friends, "That will be us next year guys! We should take pictures next year to commemorate our first time starting clinicals." It was unfortunate that we weren't able to do that this semester, but it was for good reason that we are online. This semester has actually been a lot more manageable for me. Freshmen year, I really piled on the units and it was a struggle, especially with microbiology in conjunction with a reading-heavy class. I really struggled to find my balance in a new city, with no close friends there with me, and with my family so far away from me. I love that this semester I am at home most of the time with my family because we are all so close together and because
COVID has hit everywhere, all of my siblings are at home for the first time in a long time. In that aspect, this semester has been easier for me. What was really difficult for me to adjust to were the length of my nursing classes. Some classes are 6 hours long with few and short breaks in between. I thought about nodding off in class and just listening to the lecture later because it was all being recorded anyway, but then I thought why should I do that when I would just have to re-watch the 4-hour long class again later? Now that I've had practice with taking long classes, it has gotten easier for me to sit through lecture and take notes and I have found some neat ways to keep myself awake and alert during these classes.
Surprisingly, I enjoy my pathophysiology class the most right now. Yes, the class itself is hard, but I've been fortunate enough to have a professor that teaches the material in a way that is conducive to my learning style. She tells us funny stories from her time in the hospital and relates it back to the material in class. Her stories are so absurd sometimes that it just sticks in my memory and I remember the material when I take the quiz for her class. It also helps that I am genuinely interested in the content that we are learning; it's not just theoretical information like past classes have been. The material that I am learning now can be applied and seen in real life in the hospital. Having that aspect of realness and tangible quality to the material helps me to enjoy learning the material so much more even though it is difficult.
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