I cannot believe that this semester is already halfway over! It has been such an eventful and exciting semester so far. At the beginning of this year I pledged Epsilon Psi Epsilon and had one of the most exciting weeks of Optometry School thus far. We spent a week doing activities with our pledge class that brought us closer together and left us with some pretty great memories. Then throughout the past month we have spent a good amount of time in preparing to order our Optometric equipment. We had many informational lunch meetings (I feel like I haven’t bought a meal in over a month with all of the free food that we have been given) explaining the equipment that we would be buying and the choices that we would have to make. It was actually a pretty easy process thanks to our two Equipment Representatives in our class who organized all of the events and became very knowledgeable on the equipment. It was also very helpful to talk with the older Optometry Students to get their opinions on what equipment they liked the best.

We are in the homestretch of the semester and have so many exciting things to look forward to. This weekend is the school’s formal dance called of course “The Eyeball”. The dance is put on by AOSA (American Optometric Student Association) and everyone is beyond excited for it. Then in only 9 days I will be leaving for Jamaica with 6 other First Year Optometry Students and 7 Second Year Students. We will be going through Fellowship of Christian Optometrists (FCO) to a mission house in Jamaica to give eye exams and screenings. I am so excited for this amazing opportunity and cannot wait to tell you all about it when I return. April is then right around the corner and before we know it we will be into our Finals week. Overall though, my eye is on the prize of our White Coat Ceremony which will be on May 17th (only 78 days away). This is a ceremony to celebrate completing our first year and receiving our White Coats.

With all of these exciting events it has been a bit more challenging to keep up with the class load. But it is definitely possible. I have had to tweak and improve my time management skills to stay on top of my calendar to get all of my work done. But I along with everyone else have been doing it. We just know that if we want to take part in the fun activities we have to put in the time and effort with our schoolwork first to earn it.