How’s everyone doing?  Did you get through midterms in one piece?

Actually, we’re just about to wrap up our semester at the School of Pharmacy.  It’s going to be a grueling sprint to the finish, like a boot camp obstacle course where your drill instructor is trying to get you to ingest as much mud as possible.

The semester just hit us hard, with four exams and three quizzes in two weeks.  And guess what we have this Friday? Another exam. 

We’ve moved on from talking about people dying of kidney and liver failure and now progressed to people dying of blood clots, hypertension, and heart failure.  I swear, as soon as we began watching lectures on deep vein thrombosis, I started feeling phantom twinges in my legs and self-diagnosing myself for every ailment we’ve learned up to now.

Okay, so I’m probably not in need of medical attention, but it’s still important to get up and walk around campus to get your blood pumping.  A change of pace can help clear your mind.  Go to the gym.  Get some coffee (Green Grove Cafe coffee is just $1.05 if you bring your own coffee cup!).  Step outside for some fresh air.  It’s been unseasonably warm these last few weeks, and I’ve been taking advantage of it, watching lectures and reading notes outside whenever I can.

Also, be sure to plan for varying weather changes. This Saturday was my son’s last MSI soccer game of the fall session, and the morning started out as a balmy 77 degrees, overcast, but enjoyable.  During the fourth quarter, however, it began to rain, and the temperatures dropped a good ten to fifteen degrees.  Parents in shorts and short sleeves were doing Riverdance trying to stay warm and hoping for the game to end quickly.  The prepared few had taken out umbrellas.

I’m excited that the holidays are right around the corner!  That means there’s incentive to study hard and manage your time so that you can relax with friends and family during the upcoming weeks.  Plan ahead.  Your family will give you the stink-eye if you study at the dinner table on Thanksgiving.

Good luck, study hard, and I’ll see you around campus!

And I’ll leave you with this picture of my son shooting a pumpkin cannon on Halloween afternoon, because why not?