Month: May 2020

I cannot believe it, but it is time to write my last blog. I remember reading the student blogs before starting optometry school anxiously wondering what it would be like. It is hard to believe that it is over already. So now what? That is the most exciting part, the opportunities for life after optometry school are endless– private practice, corporate optometry, research and development, graduate school, fellowships, and residencies! I am actually just coming to the realization today that I am in the driver’s seat and get to decide what I do from here. During optometry school, our schedules were made for us, our clinic rotations assigned to us, and there was a four year plan. There is no more plan!

As for me, I am fortunate enough to have obtained exactly the job I had wanted in private practice. I am really excited to start working! I have always loved all aspects of optometry, and I would like to utilize the full range of skills I have learned. I have to admit, I was a bit nervous about how the current economic situation would impact all of our job prospects, but fortunately, most of my classmates’ jobs have been unaffected. The majority of my classmates are pursuing jobs in private practice and about a third are doing residencies. Most of the people doing residencies are looking to specialize, particularly in ocular disease at the VA.  We also have a couple of people in our class who are going to serve as optometrists in the military!

Reflecting back on my time at OSU, I realized that every difficult time was followed by a joyous time. Optometry school is definitely not a walk in the park, but with each trial comes a victory, and it is so worth it. It is an amazing feeling to go through each struggle and slowly see yourself becoming a doctor. It is worth your while to believe in yourself and go completely out of your comfort zone to see what you are made of. I really was not sure if I was going to be capable of becoming an optometrist, but with one day at a time, one test at a time, and one patient at a time, I eventually got there. I am so incredibly thankful to the OSUCO for believing in me and supporting me through this journey. The college truly is a family including students, faculty, staff, and patients. I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to spend the past four years with the most brilliant, caring, and supportive Buckeye family. I am also thankful the Buckeye family is forever, and I look forward to being part of the alumni community!

I sincerely hope this blog has been helpful to someone who has been considering going to optometry school. I appreciate you all taking this journey with me, and I am so thankful for the opportunity to share it with you. I wish you all the best if you are an undergraduate considering applying to optometry school, a “non-trad” who is considering a major life change, or someone who is curious what this wild ride looks like. I hope you all stay healthy and never settle for less than the best in life! Thank you to the OSU College of Optometry for changing my life forever! Let’s save vision!

P. S. Every person’s time at OSU looks different, but my advice is to take every opportunity that comes your way! Below are some of my favorite memories.

It is official, the Ohio State University College of Optometry Class of 20/20 has graduated! We are optometrists and alumni rather than students! May 3 we had our virtual graduation ceremony, which exceeded my expectations. I must admit that when I first heard about the virtual graduation, I was upset because I thought it would mean it was less likely we would have an in-person graduation. Fortunately, Dean Zadnik and President Drake are still committed to their promises to host in-person graduation festivities in the future. So the way I see it, this weekend was graduation part 1.

Just like a wedding, when nothing goes according to plan, it is important to remember that the only thing that really matters is actually getting married. Well, nothing went according to plan for our graduation but the important thing is, we still graduated. The moment President Drake officially granted us our degrees was still the moment we all became doctors. I spent that moment with my husband in our living room, and I am thankful for the memory. I feel like we earned that degree together, and he deserved to share in that moment by my side rather than far away on the bleachers as it would have been. He packed many meals, talked me through many emotions, took care of literally everything around our house, financially supported me, and was my constant source of support all the way through this journey. It seems like just yesterday we both decided to change careers, and we finally made it! We went from -ers to -ists (teacher and police officer to optometrist and chemist)!

So how did we celebrate graduation? Creatively! I have so much enjoyed seeing all the creative graduation celebrations for my classmates via social media. Some people had ordered their regalia, while others donned regalia from previous graduations to at least look the part. Graduation celebrations took the form of drive-by parties, driveway parties, social distancing selfies, virtual gatherings, and lots of pictures.

I decided last minute to celebrate with my family, and I am so glad I did. I gave my mom only a few hours’ notice, and she managed to throw together some decorations and have a wonderful patio party! I pulled up to my parents’ house, and my mom had tied balloons to the mailbox, put up class of 2020 signs and was dancing to Hang on Sloopy as I pulled in. I absolutely loved it! I also received some incredible gifts like a beautiful bracelet shaped like glasses, an optometrist Barbie, and many heart-felt notes. One of my favorite gifts, though, was a buckeye sapling my dad pulled out of the woods as I was leaving their house. I know tree analogies are cliché, but I could not help but realize the symbolism. So forgive me for the next cliché’ paragraph….

My dad handing me the buckeye tree made me realize the transition we are all experiencing right now. This weekend we went from student to doctor. I am only just beginning the next 30+ years of my career.

I planted it first thing and have been watering it diligently ever since. I hope to watch that buckeye tree grow just as my career grows. It is of course up to me now to ensure that both succeed. Just like the tree, I am ready to start putting down roots in a community and watch families grow up through a private practice. I can already imagine the day I stand beside that tree and look back thinking, “Where did the time go?” These past four years have been the fastest four years of my life and this is only just the beginning of this exciting career. I am so ready for this journey! I am also looking forward to graduation part 2 someday!

 

Hello, all!

I have been debating about writing this blog post for a long time because I could never quite decide how to write it. I considered writing a post that made no mention of COVID-19 in my own desperate attempt to ignore the elephant in the room for just a few minutes. I considered writing a post entirely about how COVID-19 has impacted the college, but then that felt like accepting the reality that I am still having trouble accepting. While the battle in my mind continues, I decided to just write something.

As you all are probably aware, OSU has transitioned to all online learning, which includes clinical rotations. The last day fourth years were all at the college was Friday, March 13, and at that time, none of us knew if we were going to return. Initially only classes were moving online and clinics were going to remain open. Several days later we learned that all of our clinic rotations as optometry students were suspended until further notice. Again, shortly after that, we got the news that clinics were suspended for the remainder of the semester. As a fourth year student, that meant we would never return to the OSUCO as students. At that point, we were all clinging to the idea of still having our graduation festivities. As you probably already know, those festivities are now postponed.

As you can imagine, each email we received during that time of uncertainty triggered all sorts of emotions. I honestly have felt this experience has been similar to a grieving process. I know every person has responded differently during this time, but for me, it has been grief. I was initially very shocked and had a hard time accepting the news. I actually would reflexively go to set my alarm for my usual time and then be reminded I had nowhere to be the next day. Every day I would just think about my patients, my attendings, my classmates, and I just wanted life to go back to normal. It was also very unsettling initially wondering if we had met the requirements to graduate.

Fortunately, all of the uncertainty regarding graduation is behind us. Dean Zadnik made a promise to us that we would have our class celebrations at some point, and she has stayed very committed to that. I have felt so fortunate to be an OSU student during these times because the president of the university has done his best to protect us while also recognizing the importance of graduation. President Drake is hosting a virtual graduation while still promising to host an in-person graduation in the future, as well.

So what did they do with us when clinic was shut down? Well, to finish out our semester as fourth year students, we transitioned to online clinic in place of seeing patients. From what I understand, our class was the first class to do fourth year rotations on the semester system rather than the quarter system. Thanks to that change, we were set to see more patients than the previous classes, so that allowed us to miss the remaining weeks of the semester and still have adequate patient encounter numbers. Even though I had seen “enough” patients to graduate, it still felt like having the rug pulled out from under me. When I learned clinic was cancelled for the remainder of the semester, the reality set it that the next patient I would see would be as a doctor rather than a student intern. I think we all had our own reaction to this thought, but ultimately we are ready. There are many doctors who graduated in the 1980s or earlier, and they graduated having never dilated a pupil! I have come to realize that graduating does not mean I am an expert and know everything there is to know about the practice of optometry for all of time. It really just means I know enough to get started, and I know how to get the information to continue learning. Optometry is a profession that continues to grow and change as medicine changes, new research comes out, state laws change, and the vision demands of society change. While this realization is intimidating, it is also exciting. It is so exciting to know there is always something new to learn.

Let me tell you, I did a lot of learning during these past few weeks of online learning. While I would have much rather been in clinic seeing patients, I found the online materials our clinic attendings developed to be very valuable. For those of us who were on our in-house rotation at the college, we had a weekly session with an attending from each clinic service, so I had a 1.5-3 hour session for binocular vision and pediatrics, low vision rehabilitation, student health center, and contact lens. We also had various assignments sprinkled throughout. The sessions consisted of literature reviews, many patient cases, and new trends or topics in the field. I actually felt it was enough material to keep me busy most days, and I enjoyed seeing my clinic attendings and classmates on zoom every day. In addition to the material presented through the college, there were a lot of additional lectures available to students and doctors free of charge given the circumstances. The American Academy of Optometry presented lectures hourly all day every day for the past month for students, which I have found to be a nice addition to the materials offered by the college. Basically, if there was a topic I wanted to learn more about, there was a lecture somewhere about it online.

While I hate that I had to write this blog about how COVID-19 impacted our time at the college, I am glad to say that the transition from clinic to online turned out better than I could have imagined. I feel I was able to fill gaps in my education and expand on areas that I had been meaning to explore more. Up next,  virtual graduation!