Spring 'no' break
I just realized that it has been a week since I posted. The past week was spring break and it just swooshed by me. So let's see - going back to last weekend - I was home and worked on two papers which were due on the 15th of March for a medical informatics conference. Saturday I went out with friends for some food and drinks and it was very relaxing. Sun was spent in school making up for the time lost partying Sat night, grocery shopping, cleaning etc. Mon I stayed and worked more on the papers, met with [Adviser] and just tried to keep up with my life, in general.
On Tues I had a morning meeting with [Adviser] about my paper and he felt that since my paper was only about 60-65% done, I should work on it that night and only leave for [Teaching hospital] on Wed. But I hadn't told him that I planned on attending the next Mini-Med School lecture on Tues night at the Medical Center. So I came home from my meeting around 2:00 and after much debating with myself thought "Screw the paper" and packed my bag and drove to [Teaching hospital]. Rush hour traffic and construction prolonged my drive by 20 minutes but I was happy to make it just in time for the Med School lecture. The talk on "Smoking and cancer" was fascinating. But because I was tired and couldn't stop thinking about my paper, I left early and came back to the apartment and worked till 1:00am on my paper.
Wed was spent making changes to the paper and emailing [Adviser] back and forth. In the evening I managed to squeeze in two hours of observations in the emergency department and then because the weather was awesome (74F) I couldn't resist going out for a run. Being able to run outdoors after such a long time made me feel like I was reborn. After my run I felt very energetic (as I usually do) and bought groceries, cooked, and spent more time on the paper. By Thurs afternoon I managed to submit it. Inspite of the extreme stress and exhaustion that only paper submission deadlines can create in my life, I spent about 2 hours in the emergency department on Thurs night. But the hallways were full of patients and the doctors and nurses were really busy. I felt awkward hanging out in the hallways among the chaos.
Fri I had recovered a little of my energy and spent most of the day at the emergency department. It was a productive session and I learned a lot by standing at the triage/registration station. I had planned on returning home today morning but a nasty snowstorm yesterday made sure that the roads were blocked and icy today. So I postponed going back home till Sun morning and spent most of my time today transcribing notes. I have a ton of grading to do by Mon and I don't know how much of it I'll be able to do given I will be tired from my drive tomorrow.
So that was spring break - all work, no play. But it was productive and being around sick people always reminds me to feel lucky about my life; no matter how tired and over-worked I am, atleast I am not lying on a hallway bed in pain. I could not achieve a few things that I had planned on doing over the 'break' such as -
1) creating a presentation for the class that I am a teaching assistant for on "how to do a good presentation". My plan was to combine the presentation tips and styles from one of my favorite blogs - Presentation Zen - and give the class a presentation on how to do an effective presentation
2) writing a review article on the Mar 2007 Communications of the ACM issue on Emergency Response Technology for a student group newsletter
3) working on my journal paper on simulation of emergency departments.
But I think I utilized by break well, except for the fact that I am EXHAUSTED. Tomorrow I go back home and have to deal with laundry, cooking, and getting ready for the next week which will be as busy, if not more. Welcome to grad school! And I'm loving it.
On Tues I had a morning meeting with [Adviser] about my paper and he felt that since my paper was only about 60-65% done, I should work on it that night and only leave for [Teaching hospital] on Wed. But I hadn't told him that I planned on attending the next Mini-Med School lecture on Tues night at the Medical Center. So I came home from my meeting around 2:00 and after much debating with myself thought "Screw the paper" and packed my bag and drove to [Teaching hospital]. Rush hour traffic and construction prolonged my drive by 20 minutes but I was happy to make it just in time for the Med School lecture. The talk on "Smoking and cancer" was fascinating. But because I was tired and couldn't stop thinking about my paper, I left early and came back to the apartment and worked till 1:00am on my paper.
Wed was spent making changes to the paper and emailing [Adviser] back and forth. In the evening I managed to squeeze in two hours of observations in the emergency department and then because the weather was awesome (74F) I couldn't resist going out for a run. Being able to run outdoors after such a long time made me feel like I was reborn. After my run I felt very energetic (as I usually do) and bought groceries, cooked, and spent more time on the paper. By Thurs afternoon I managed to submit it. Inspite of the extreme stress and exhaustion that only paper submission deadlines can create in my life, I spent about 2 hours in the emergency department on Thurs night. But the hallways were full of patients and the doctors and nurses were really busy. I felt awkward hanging out in the hallways among the chaos.
Fri I had recovered a little of my energy and spent most of the day at the emergency department. It was a productive session and I learned a lot by standing at the triage/registration station. I had planned on returning home today morning but a nasty snowstorm yesterday made sure that the roads were blocked and icy today. So I postponed going back home till Sun morning and spent most of my time today transcribing notes. I have a ton of grading to do by Mon and I don't know how much of it I'll be able to do given I will be tired from my drive tomorrow.
So that was spring break - all work, no play. But it was productive and being around sick people always reminds me to feel lucky about my life; no matter how tired and over-worked I am, atleast I am not lying on a hallway bed in pain. I could not achieve a few things that I had planned on doing over the 'break' such as -
1) creating a presentation for the class that I am a teaching assistant for on "how to do a good presentation". My plan was to combine the presentation tips and styles from one of my favorite blogs - Presentation Zen - and give the class a presentation on how to do an effective presentation
2) writing a review article on the Mar 2007 Communications of the ACM issue on Emergency Response Technology for a student group newsletter
3) working on my journal paper on simulation of emergency departments.
But I think I utilized by break well, except for the fact that I am EXHAUSTED. Tomorrow I go back home and have to deal with laundry, cooking, and getting ready for the next week which will be as busy, if not more. Welcome to grad school! And I'm loving it.
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