I Can't Believe It's [Over] [Just Beginning]

I GRADUATED LAST FRIDAY.

Yep. After 13 years of pre-college education, 4.5 years of college, and 25 months in grad school, I can officially say I’m a master.  A Master of Science. A Master of Science in Physician Assistant Studies, to be exact.

Now that you’ve paused for about 10 seconds to let that fact soak in and realize the monumentous amount of work that went into those four words I bet you’re dying to ask me the most natural next question. Nearly everyone always does.

“Now what?”

But first, before I comment on the future, let me briefly reflect on the past.

Over the past 25 months, I’ve earned 129 graduate credit hours, spent thousands of hours in class and studying, took more notes than I have space to store in my tiny room, and drank enough caffeine to officially reach gold star status at Starbucks. Was it a rewarding experience? Of course. Would I want to repeat it? Of course not.

(L) White Coat Ceremony, June 2013
(R) Graduation Ceremony, June 2015

My love of medical learning and humanitarian serving found a perfect blend in the profession I chose. Not only did I HAVE to study medicine, I GOT to study medicine; how many people get that privilege? I am perpetually amazed at how incredibly the human body is designed. The day I lose that wonder is the day I should change professions.

I have many happy memories of school – fun conversations around our dissection table in anatomy, meeting with friends at Café Crema to study, card games during lunch, line dancing in Des Moines with a classmate, rooming with some pretty spectacular classmates-turned-roomies, exploring new locations throughout Iowa, traveling to Boston to represent our program at the AAPA conference, doing p90x with a classmate, running a half marathon.

Then there were the hard times too – wrecking my car the first day of surgery, missing the once-an-hour evening bus and having to walk home in the rain, smelling like formaldehyde and latex the entire summer, forgetting my tennis shoes and having to wear dress shoes all day in the OR, waiting for 4 hours to be picked up from the airport in Tanzania because our host forgot we were coming, being exhausted ALL. THE. TIME., picking up my life and moving every 4-6 weeks during clinical year.

But it was worth it. And now it’s time to enter the “real world” again and be a productive member of society J

And now, to answer that burning question: now what?

Well, after a few weeks of travel and studying, I will be taking the PANCE (Physician Assistant National Certification Exam, pronounced like “pants” and equivalent to medical school board exams) on July 16. Then I will be starting a full-time job with the QuickCares (urgent care/acute care) here in the area.

I’m sure it’ll be challenging transitioning from student to provider, but I’ve been well prepared. And who says life is easy? Here’s just another opportunity to #DoHardThings.