Today feels really good...

...but not as good as a year from now will feel! Or even 2 years from now.... now THAT will feel good!

Today I finished my last final of my first semester of PA school! Hallelujah! It has definitely been a rough week. To be honest though, not much different than finals were at BYU. I mean some are harder than others, some take more studying than others, and regardless of what grade I "need" to get on the test to get "what I need" in the class, I always stress out. I woke up really early this morning to study more for my 10am final and developed a splitting headache. It got better after a while but not before I went back to bed for 45 minutes. So much for the last-minute cramming! Anyway, the test went ok, I did great in my classes, and for a week and a half I am a FREE woman! (Minus the fact that I told Burke I'd be all his, after all the neglect he's dealt with in the last week or two!)

In retrospect, it was a good semester. I learned LOTS and loved it. I am very excited but nervous about getting into more clinical skills classes. One of my favorite things I did this semester was a couple of weeks ago when the medical school put on a community health fair at a local high school. The PA program manned booths for kids: balloon animals, an obstacle course, a nutrition station, a safety station (why you should ride a bike helmet) etc. I jumped in with the group teaching about why you shouldn't smoke. We had some plastinated lungs from the gross anatomy lab for demonstration: two normal lungs, a black lung from a smoker, and a lung from someone with lung cancer.

Normal healthy lungs

Smoker lung in the guy's hand

It was a most effective visual aid! These kids could hold the heavy, black, rubbery smoker lung in their hand and recognize that this is a big problem. I LOVED teaching young children, high schoolers, and even adults (some who were even prior and current smokers) how important it is to take care of our lungs. I hope we were able to encourage resolve to "never, ever smoke" in many and resolve to try again to quit in others. I really want to make sure I continually get involved in community outreach, education, and prevention. Preventive medicine is KEY.

All of these folks signed a pledge that they would never smoke.