Happy thanksgiving friends! I wanted to pop in and thank every single one of you. Thank you for your comments, your sweet emails, messages and likes on Instagram, your tweets, and for reading my blog. When I started out, I really had no idea I would be able to reach out to so many people. I love being able to do what I do online and it would not have been possible without your support and encouragement. So, thank you!

A Day in the Life: Didactic Year

Hi everyone! Since I've been posting a lot less on here pretty much ever since our fall semester started, I figured I'd do a life in the day post to show you all what a PA student's typical day is like. I loved reading these while I was waiting to get accepted to PA school and even now as a PA student, to see what other PA students do daily.

6:40 am: alarm goes off and I wonder how is it morning already. Didn't I just go to bed? Today is a non-exam day so I get to "sleep in" till 7, otherwise I'm up by 6 (sometimes even 5:30) to review.

Things I Wish I'd Known Before Starting PA School

A new group of interviewees inspired this blog post! Head on over to Life as A PA's website to read my new post on what I wish I'd known before starting PA School.

Ask me anything: PA school

I'm alive! This semester is much more busier than the summer semester and I now understand why our bigs kept telling us to "enjoy our time off" during the 1st semester. We're all just trying to keep our head above water while learning all the interesting and cool things we get taught everyday. Ok.. almost every day. I've been getting a lot of questions from everyone (which I love, keep em' coming) via email or Instagram so I thought I'd share some of them here so everyone can have access to that information.

Life Lately - Mini Vacation from PA School

Hello all! If you've been keeping up on the blog, you may know that we finished our first semester of PA school on August 19th! We had a 10 day break in between our summer and fall semesters and it's been an absolutely refreshing & relaxing 10 days. It was a much needed break that gave me enough time to recuperate and start out the next semester strong. Just to mix it up a little, I thought I'd do a little recap of how I spent my break away from the books!

First Semester of PA School

It's been a few days since the end of my first semester of PA school and I've been reflecting on how life has been the last 13 weeks. Although some parts are blocked out by my brain, here are a few things I have to share:

Three for Tuesday (08.23.2016)

Medicine

• Just how we use bleach to get rid of stains from our clothes, it's also the most efficient bactericidal agent in neutrophils (cells of the immune system) in our bodies.

• Pterion is a very thin region on our skull where front, temporal, sphenoid, and parietal bones come together. The anterior division of the middle meningeal artery is in this region. So if you get a skull fracture or a traumatic blow to this area, it can cause the middle meningeal artery to rupture and can lead to an extradural hematoma.

•  The sense of smell is the least understood sense of all five senses

How to Study Applied Anatomy in PA School

I'm done with my first semester of PA school! 3 more to go, then we'll be off to clinicals! Thank you all for your encouraging emails and kind words over these last few months, it means a lot. I get a lot of questions about how I studied for anatomy in PA school, so I thought I'd share my two cents here. Anatomy in undergrad is a lot different from anatomy in PA school (read about that here). In PA school, it's a lot more information, coming at you at a much faster rate, and you're expected to know all of it in a very short time. It blows my mind to think just how little I knew when we started and how much I've learned in 13 short weeks. I didn't think it was possible, but I'm so proud of my classmates and of how far we've come.

PA School Update

Hello friends! I apologize for my absence over the last few weeks, but PA school got CRAZY (in both good and not so good ways). Ever since midterms, we've been slammed with exams or quizzes, group presentations, and getting ready for our finals! I cannot believe we are literally 2 weeks away from the end of our first semester. When the upperclassmen told us that the didactic year goes by fast, I thought they were out of their minds. But, I'm glad that I stand corrected. This week is our last week of classes with one final tomorrow (in our Research Methods/Designs class) and then next week we have 5 finals!

So here are a few updates since the last time you heard from me:

PA School: Let's Get Real

When I started this blog back in February, I made myself a promise. I promised myself that I would share not only the great, eye-opening, exciting things I'll learn and experience in PA school, but also the hardships and struggles that come along with it. I promised myself I won't hide from sharing things that are otherwise hard to talk about or admit, because that wouldn't really be an honest description of what a PA student's life is like. After the week I've had, through a lot of prayer over this weekend, I feel compelled to share something with my classmates and with any other PA student (or pre-PAs) out there who is reading this.

Interview Packing List

Hi friends! Hope everyone is doing great. I've been hearing from a lot of you about getting interview invites and I am so excited for you all! If you haven't heard back yet, do not despair. It's still pretty early in the cycle and interviews go on until spring time (depending on the program's start date). Since the interview season has started, I thought I'd share a bit about packing for interviews. If you're new around here (first of all, welcome!) be sure to read up on some interview questions and my two cents on advice for PA school interviews in previous posts.

Three for Tuesday (06.28.2016)

                                                       (Words of wisdom from one of my study buddies)

Medicine

• Falciform ligament is a remnant of the umbilical vein.
• Apoptosis is programmed cell death that kills cells that are no longer needed or are injured. Increased apoptosis can cause neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, Huntington's, and Parkinson's diseases.
• Carbon is the most common exogenous pigment that accumulates in alveolar macrophages. Also, when you get a tattoo, the dermal macrophages take up that pigment giving you the tattoo you want. How cool it that?

Three for Tuesday (6.21.2016)

Hello friends! I’ve been thinking about doing a new type of post for a while now and I’m finally getting around to it. I have always enjoyed reading the weekly/weekend update posts by different bloggers where they share a number of things every week on different topics. So expect a post at least on Tuesdays of every week from here on out (unless PA school gets way too crazy). I’m linking with Franish since her top three posts are how I begin my Sunday mornings (along with a hot cup of coffee) and also because she’s one of the bloggers who inspired me to start these posts!

PA School Week 2

                 (How we entertain ourselves while studying: muscular model handshake)

Hello friends! Hope all of you are doing well. I'm happy (and so relieved) to let you know that I survived my first week of assessments! We had a quiz Monday - Thursday in Medical Ethics, Applied Anatomy, Medical Physiology and Pathophysiology I (MPP I), and Research Methods and Designs. Needless to say, by Thursday we were running on fumes, so to speak. It was a very challenging week mainly because of the enormous amount of material we covered in a short few days ,and then got quizzed in 4/5 of our classes in the same week. The first round of quizzes went very well and I hope and pray that the rest of them will go as smoothly for all of us. Here's a recap of some of my classes from this week:

And So It Begins

It's official! I just finished my first week of PA school! This week has been so wonderful, crazy, exciting, and a mix of lot of other emotions and thoughts.

PA School Orientation

Hi friends! Hope you all are doing well. We had our orientation on Wednesday and Thursday of this week. I promised in my last post that I'd give y'all an update of how everything goes and here I am. I've split it up into two parts since we had our orientation over two days.

10 Tips for an Organized Semester

Life Update: PA School orientation is TOMORROW! Wow, how did we get here already? Seems like it was November just yesterday when I got accepted to PA School. Sorry for being MIA recently, but this past week/weekend I was busy moving and then unpacking my belongings. I'm so glad I moved a full week before school actually starts so that I have enough time to get settled in.

How To Get Shadowing Hours

Hi everyone! Today, we have a guest post by Savanna from The PA Platform. She's a dermatology PA and shares a wealth of information on her site for Pre-PA, PA-S, and PA-C. Be sure to head on over to her website for more really helpful information!

Personal Statement: Mistakes to Avoid

Hello everyone! So we're at the last junction of this personal statement journey (cheesy I know) and I'm so excited for those of you applying this cycle. If you are just joining us now, here are the first and second posts of the series for you. I decided to split it apart just because there's so much to be said about writing a personal statement and I didn't want to have just one very long post. Today, let's go over some common mistakes people make on their PS and what you can do to avoid them.

Personal Statement: What To Include Part 2

Hello there! As I mentioned in my last post, I'm doing a series on how to write your personal statement. This second post will pick up where I left off last time and I'll wrap up by talking about some simple yet essential tips. In my next and last post of this series, I'll share some common mistakes that applicants should avoid making on their personal statements! So let's jump into it and finish talking about what to include in your personal statement.

Personal Statement: What To Include Part 1

By now, most of you have started your CASPA application and started to fill it in. For most people, writing their personal statement is the most daunting task about the application process. How are you supposed to set yourself apart from other applicants in just 5000 characters? Worry not, you're not alone. A reader of my blog recently asked me to read her personal statement and give her my feedback. I had a great time reading about her experiences and her desire to become a PA. It gave me an insight as to what it's like to be on the other side of the table and made me think about what goes through the minds of the admissions committee while reading our personal statements. I've decided to do a series of posts so I can share my experience and suggestions with all of my readers.

The Summer Before PA School

I am officially 26 days away from PA school orientation! Yesterday was my last day of work as an undergraduate A&P tutor and it was such a bittersweet day. However, as much as I loved being a tutor, I'm ready to move forward and start the next journey of my life. I've heard a lot of advice in respect to some DOs and DONTs before starting PA school and most of it goes hand in hand with what I had planned.

Stylebook App Review

Hi there! A while ago I mentioned how I was considering downloading the Stylebook app and so I finally decided to go ahead and buy it. Now usually I don't like to pay for apps so I always try to find a free version of it. But after researching & discovering everything Stylebook had to offer and how amazingly organized it looked, I went ahead and bought the app.

Anatomy & Physiology Study Tips

I have been working as an anatomy and physiology tutor for undergraduate students for three years now. I'm now a Level 2 certified tutor!  It was by far my most favorite class to take in undergrad and I love the fact that I got the opportunity to tutor it for 3 years! As the semester draws to an end, I realized that I only have one more week left at this job and I will really miss being a tutor. Because this is a subject I’m very passionate about, I wanted to share some study tips to ace your undergraduate anatomy and physiology classes. I will probably have to develop new study skills for my Applied Anatomy class in PA school and might do an update post once I’m through that class.

You is Smart, You is Kind, You is Important

By the time I start PA school next month, it'll be exactly two years since I graduated and got my Bachelors of Science in Biochemistry. These two gap years have been the worst and somehow even the best years of my life. I found out who I really am, how I can pick up the pieces and move forward, and that in the midst of darkness, there is always a light. Today, I wanted to share what I've learned about myself, life in general, and other people in the past two years.

When I graduated from college, I had big plans for myself that fortunately didn't work out. Yes, I said fortunately. Looking back on it now, I'm grateful that things happened the way they did. If they hadn't, I wouldn't be going to PA school next month. I had to face several rejections in order to get rerouted to where I'd always wanted to go, but was too fearful and didn't think I could do it. One of my favorite quotes now is "Every time I thought I was being rejected from something good, I was actually being re-directed towards something better" by Steve Maraboli. These words are so true in my life that it gives me goosebumps whenever I think about it.

Review: Loft Pocket Blouse & More

I've been trying out a few new things lately to build my business casual wardrobe for PA school and it's been quite fun. You guys know I am in love with Loft, so I couldn't stop myself when they had an extra 50% off all sale times last week and decided to buy the blouses I had been keeping my eye on. Today, I wanted to do a clothing review to share my experience with the items I purchased. I've seen a few bloggers do these kinds of reviews and reading them has helped me decide whether I should buy something or not! I'd like to also mention that this post was not sponsored by Loft. All opinions are mine and I will not be receiving any compensation for my review. This is simply to share my new found blouses for PA School!

Applying To PA Schools - CASPA

The next application cycle on CASPA starts in exactly 3 weeks! I cannot believe it will be a year since I started applying to PA schools. Man does time fly by. I remember thinking how the application cycle would drag on and it would take so much patience on my part to sit tight and wait for the interview season to begin. While that is partially true, I will say that looking back on it, it feels like the last application cycle happened a very long time ago. So as you're getting ready to begin your application, remember to enjoy this phase of your life as well, because no matter how tedious gathering paperwork is, it does go by a lot faster than you think! I already did a post on how to choose a PA school, so today I'm going to share some tips about using CASPA.

PAEA Virtual Fair

Hi guys! I wanted to drop in and share a quick update.

How To Choose A PA School

Happy Friday you guys! Today I wanted to share a few tips on how to narrow down your choices of which schools to apply to. Applying to PA schools is an exciting time! You've been working hard towards this goal for years (or maybe you recently decided you wanted to become a PA) and you're about to take the initial step towards the rest of your career. Either way, choosing which schools to apply to can be a little daunting. I went into my geek mode and actually made an excel spreadsheet so I can keep every school's information in one place and can compare them easily. Once I narrowed down my choices, I added another sheet and copy pasted the ones I was applying to so I can have them on their own separate place. Here are some of the things I considered, in no particular order:

Why It's Important to Take Care of Yourself

The world that we live in today is chaotic to say the least. For some, it's an organized chaos. But for others, that might not be the case. Expectations are rising, everyone is racing against time to get more done, and in the meantime spending less and less time taking care of themselves.

Today I wanted to talk about why I believe it's worth taking the time to slow down and spend some alone time with yourself. Now I understand that every person is built & functions differently, so I don't expect everyone to agree with what I'm about to share, but it's worth thinking about nevertheless.

How I Prepare For A New School Week

Today I want to share the things I do every weekend to prepare for the next week. I find it easier to navigate through the busy week if I've taken the time to plan and organize my life the weekend before. It takes some time but makes things so much easier later on during the week!

Nominated for the Liebster Award

Hi everyone! I've mixed it up a bit for this blog post. I would usually be wary of a post like this just because I'm usually not too comfortable sharing things about myself, but since this blog itself is out of my comfort zone, I decided to take the challenge! It's also a great way for my readers to get to know more about me. So I was nominated by a really sweet blogger Cherish for the Liebster Award and I'd like to take a moment to say thank you! Cherish is a 2nd year med student who started her blog around the same time I did and does a mix of beauty, med school, and lifestyle posts that I enjoy reading.

What is a Physician Assistant?

 via

I wanted to take the time to share with you all what a PA does and what the PA profession is about. Even though we keep hearing that PAs are in great demand and the profession is expected to grow 33% in the next 10 years, there are so many people out there that are unaware of the profession. I'm not passing any judgement on that at all, because at one point I was one of those people too.

I'm on Bloglovin'!

Hi everyone! I recently discovered a website called Bloglovin' and I'm hooked. It's basically like a Pinterest for blogs! And if you know me, you know that I'm addicted to Pinterest. Being an organization freak, I find it so much easier to have all the blogs I follow in one place and get the new posts on my news feed.

Hello Spring!

Hello all! It's been a pretty fun past few days as I've been on spring break since last friday. I work as an anatomy and physiology tutor at a university and so when they're out of school, I don't have to go in to work. It's a pretty sweet deal. I had one of my best friends visit me this past weekend and we pretty much spent the entire weekend pigging out, pleasing our tastebuds, and attempting to shop! I say attempting because we visited three different malls in one day to find the things we were looking for and didn't even end up buying as much. That's a lot for a person like me who despises going to the mall. All in all, I look at it as a pretty successful trip because I bought a top for less then $14 at Loft :)

3 Years Ago Today

I went down memory lane today when Facebook graciously showed me a picture that I had shared three years ago. It was a picture of me holding a heart in my hand for the very first time. This is from an 8 am anatomy lab that I took during undergrad with one of my roommates, who was just as excited and eager to learn more about the human body as I was. I remember feeling so privileged to get the opportunity to physically see and touch the chambers, the valves, and the fibers of an organ that beats without resting in our chest, in order to pump blood and nourish all the other organs in our bodies. It was an extraordinary moment that left me giddy and excited for the future.

T-Minus 3 months!

"The ball has started rolling and will form into an avalanche by August 2018." That's what I told someone a few weeks ago in reference to PA school and it's starting to come true already. Our orientation is exactly in 3 months! A lot of financial aid things have kicked in this week and most of us are in a frenzy to figure out the most tedious yet important part of this process. We got a letter from our school letting us know all that needs to be done before orientation and let's just say it's going to be a busy three months! 

How to Prepare for PA School in Undergrad

 

1. Pre-reqs

You don't have to be a biology or chemistry major to apply to PA school. I know a lot of applicants that majored in exercise science, HHP, and even in history before applying to Med/PA school. If you are a non-science major, make sure you take all the pre-reqs required for the programs you're looking at. This takes a bit of planning and something your advisor would be able to help you out with.

2. GPA & GRE

Every year PA schools are becoming more and more competitive and the minimum GPA and GRE scores required keep rising. It's important to keep in mind that the minimum required GPA & GRE scores and the average GPA & GRE scores of the accepted students are two different things. You want your GPA & GRE scores to be either in the same vicinity or higher than the average scores of accepted students. That doesn't mean that you won't get in if you have a GPA that's lower than the accepted average, but it definitely makes you a stronger applicant.

Interview Questions

As promised in my last what to expect during interviews post, I'm sharing mix of some of the questions I had to answer at all three of my interviews either verbally or in a written form. It looks like a lot of questions, but one of my interviews was a MMI (multiple mini interviews) and the other two had two interviewers at once. Please note that the questions you can be asked are not limited to the ones in this post.

The 'All About You' Questions - These questions are usually used to start off the interview and then get more detailed and require some more thought and preparation. During these questions, they're trying to get to know your personality and to see if you've really given this whole PA school thing some thought. A lot of people struggle with the "tell me something about yourself" question. I would say it's okay to add something personal towards the end of your answer, such as "I like hiking" or "I like to try out new recipes in my free time" as long as you lead the answer with a few professional and academic statements.

PA School Interviews - Things to keep in mind

I apologize in advance for a rather long post. For those of you who aren't applying to PA school, you might not enjoy the next post or two, but bear with me please :) 

While I was taking classes part time to finish my pre-reqs for PA school, I met a classmate who had also applied to PA schools. He was kind enough to pass down Andrew Rodican’s “How to Ace the Physician Assistant School Interview” book to me, which had been handed down to him as well. With the help this book, along with the advice of our A&P professor, and the many wise people I have been blessed with in my life, I was able to prepare for and ace my PA school interviews. Here are a few things to consider if you're getting ready for the next interview cycle:

First and foremost, know why you want to become a PA. Not only so you can answer the question at your PA school interviews, but also for yourself. Really know why you want to spend the rest of your life doing this. The cliché answer that you want to stay away from is “because I want to help people”. Yes, while that is a valid and very important part of why anyone would want to become a PA, realize that we can help people without being a PA. Please give it some more thought and have more reasons than just that.  

A first for everything

Welcome everyone :) This is my first post on my first blog! I've been following a few blogs for a while now but never thought I would want to start one myself. My main motivation for this blog was to be able to "process and share my journey" as one of my best friends put it. When I started looking into the PA profession, trying to figure out if it's something I would want to commit to for the rest of my life, I didn't know any PAs or anyone who was currently in PA school. After calling almost every clinic and hospital in my town, I heard back from one PA who was willing to let me shadow him. Excited and eager to get my feet wet, I took the opportunity and set out to buy my first set of scrubs! 
Once I decided to apply to PA school, reading other people's experiences helped me understand what to expect and what all I had to look forward to! 

In early summer of 2015, I applied to PA school and got my first interview invitation in August. I still remember opening that email in Kroger and running to my mom to share the news with her. It involved some jumping up and down and squealing on my part, which is very uncharacteristic of me. But when you get something you've been waiting for a long time, jumping up and down with joy seems very natural. 

The program I will be attending was my third interview and honestly the last place I expected to get in. When I first applied there, I knew that there was a possibility that I might not even get an interview because of how competitive the program is. But with the program's reputation, foundation, and proximity to my hometown, I decided to go ahead and try my luck by applying. I am so blessed to have gotten into my top choice and feel that I'm heading exactly where I need to be.

We got our first round of emails two weeks ago with a calendar for our didactic and clinical semesters, so I'm expecting a lot of paperwork and financial aid stuff to kick in the next few weeks. Stay tuned for more exciting updates as we get closer to our start date in May. 

Thank you so much for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your thursday!