End of the Semester

It has been one rough semester, and one full of learning experiences.  I have to repeat the semester, as I failed by 2 points.  Pretty much nothing went as expected.  I could've made many reels similar to The 500 Days of Summer movie scene showing the disparities of his expectations vs reality.  Mainly the whole semester was a blur as every day seemed pretty similar.  A basic overview would be: eat oatmeal, go to the Annex and mediasite the lectures, eat lunch, make my study product, eat dinner, finish making my study product, get ready for bed. The first week was already overwhelming with the number of power point slides we were presented with each day.  It seemed like by the time I was done writing down my summary of the notes, there wasn't enough time to actually take time to retain the notes I was writing.

There wasn't much that was too memorable that semester, because I didn't take much time out to enjoy the island, or get involved with clubs, or really take time to develop meaningful relationships with my classmates.  Orientation week was awesome, but it was pretty much downhill after that.  Beach bash was fun, even though I arrived late.  Some classmates cooked a surprisingly very tasty Thanksgiving dinner.  I enjoyed going to the market and surveying the different foods they had available.  As my results were consistently subpar, I tweaked how I was studying.  I tried using the whiteboard more, making flow charts, cornell notes, etc. but nothing seemed to help.

Towards the latter weeks of the semester, I got a fungal infection that caused itchiness of my skin and dryness.  A friend gave a solution of sulfur and coconut oil that temporarily helped, but the itchiness persisted.  A medication prescribed by the doctor also gave some temporary relief.  I also developed what my physician called a minor case of vitiligo around my eye and other areas on my face.  If it gets more severe, I might skip med school and try my hand at doing Michael Jackson performances in Vegas.  I also had problems with the maid, as she was not cleaning the bathroom or kitchen thoroughly, causing added stress.  There was also mold found in mine and my neighbors' apartment that lived on my floor.

Throughout the difficult times there's always things to be grateful for.  I'm grateful that Ross Christian Fellowship is on campus, it helps to remember things more important than test scores and forget about the stresses of the semester.  I'm also grateful for the relationships that I actually did take the time to cultivate.   Despite my struggles, the information was interesting and I did enjoy studying it.