Stress

Hello.  It's FRIDAY, September 10th.  It's about 8:30 am and I'm writing this sitting in the Student Union.  I just finished my bagel and cream cheese and an iced caramel latte for breakfast.  My anatomy laboratory is split into groups and I don't have anatomy lab this morning.
The last few days have been the most stressed I've ever been, Wednesday being the worst.  All of us first semesters are stressing worse because we don't have anything to grade ourselves on.  Or we aren't sure how much information we need to know because we haven't taken our first exams yet.  We leave class and study all night, usually resulting in a few mental breakdowns or books being thrown across the room.  Procrastination just isn't an option here.  You can't chose to put your studies off.  In Undergrad, I found myself watching TV or napping instead of studying.  Here, we study as soon as we're done with class, we barely have time to make dinner, and we go to bed at 9:30 so we can get up at 6am and do it all over again.  Everyone says that Vet School will be the hardest four years of your entire life and I totally believe them.  I appreciate the little time that I have to do nothing.  And I definitely learned to appreciate the weekends.  Vet School is like working a 70 hour week.  We never get a break.  But I guess it's worth it.  I've found that studying for Anatomy is the hardest.  It's memorization and everyday, it's a completely new set of bones or muscles.  So if you don't know 100% of the information assigned the night before, then you're behind.  This is what my wall looked like three days ago.  I've added a few more things up there.  But this is the amount of information we're required to learn in one night.

My daily schedule (which is exactly the same almost everyday):

6:30am- Wake up

7:15am- Leave for School

8:00am-10:00am- Anatomy Lab

10:00am-12:00pm- Histology/Embryology

12:00pm-1:00pm- LUNCH

1:00pm-2:00pm- Nutrition

2:00pm-4:00pm- Physiology

4:15pm- Arrive at home

4:30pm-6:00pm- Study

6:00pm-6:05pm- Eat dinner, usually microwavable meals

6:05pm-9:00pm- Study

9:30pm- Sleep

It's the same routine everyday.  And I'm sure that as we get more information, our sleep time will be moved back.  Most students go to sleep around midnight and wake up at 6am.  

It's tough work.  But it's all I do and all I think about.  We don't have time for jobs... and sometimes I'm thankful that I have time for a shower.  I think living in St. Kitts is one of the best things I've done.  All the students here are in the same boat.  If I were at MSU, I would have the distractions that I had in Undergraduate.  All the students, the restaurants, etc.  Everything here closes at exactly 4pm.  So nothing's really open in order to distract you.  Today is Friday and I've never been more thankful for this day.