5th Term!

Well, here Ross is, in his 5th term of medical school. I wish I could say, "I can't believe it." But i'm not.

We're here and thank everything that is holy that we are.

Part of 5th term includes the students doing hospital visits. From what I gather this means they bus the students to a local hospital and they sit around sweaty while they watch the doctor do something. Sometimes the students are more involved than others, it just kind of depends.

Since today was Ross's first hospital visit (a weekly occurrence) I had to take a little picy-pic.

I never knew how absolutely wonderful it would feel to be in 5th term (well.... for ROSS to be in 5th term). Ross's study partner says that every time he sees me I have this ridiculously huge smile on my face. The happiness of a temporary light at the end of the tunnel is oozzing out of every pore of my being!



Yippppeeee!

4 months left in Grenada
< 1 month Ross will submit his requests for where he wants to do clinical rotations
< 6 months Ross will take the USMLE. THE MOST important exam of his entire life.
6 months-ish and we will be in our new location
7 months ish he will be starting his 3rd year of medical school and "studying" in a real live hospital (oh yeah, that's why we started this journey!)

QW #17 Take Time

I only have about 2 dozen posts that I should be writing to catch up to current time. But I decided to just take a break and talk about feelings.

Haha. Okay so not really, but I did want to post a "Quote Whenever"

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=692661274099038&set=a.402772463087922.99151.402701759761659&type=1&theater

"We're so busy watching out for what's just ahead of us that we don't take time to enjoy where we are."
-Calvin & Hobbes

During the holiday break, I have really felt this.

At this stage in my life it is pretty easy to get wrapped up in "what if"s and "what next"s. It's good to be prepared and forward-thinking, but most the time it's just me getting wrapped up in worry. It can be a pretty toxic way of thinking.

Here is a fact: I live in a beautiful country.

It may not be filled with friends, or family, convenience or cool temperatures, but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate it. 

Over the break Ross and I went on a mini vacation to Carriacou, an island just north of here, but still part of Grenada. It was stunningly beautiful in Carriacou and when we were done with vacation we still came "home" to beautiful Grenada.  People spend years saving up to sink their toes in the warm, soft sand and swim in the beautiful blue water here.

I realized that I need to spend less time complaining and more time appreciating. Sure I often feel like there are 23,456,789 things bad to 3 things good, but that doesn't mean there is NO good. 

In 4 short months I will kiss Grenada goodbye, probably forever. So instead of being jealous of the land of Targets and fast food (which seriously, will be commonplace soo fast), I need to appreciate how slow and quiet life is. I need to appreciate being surrounded by greenery and colorful bougainvillea. I need to look around me and realize that even though 4th term might be 4 months of the purest HELL I have ever experienced, the sun rose for a few weeks and I could breathe again.

Even a few weeks is a victory. So I should celebrate that. Keep moving forward and enjoy even the smallest of tiniest victories. The future may hold bigger and brighter things (because that is what we always hope, right?), but I don't live in the future.

I live now.