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I Think I Need (Another) Study Break…

So, if there’s one thing I’ve learned over the past two semesters at The Ohio State University College of Optometry, it’s that I’m pretty terrible at studying.

Just kidding. That’s not actually a new revelation; studying has never been one of my top 85 skills. Nevertheless, it’s a point that I was reminded of as I started my 8th study break in the past hour.

Yeah.. Maybe it’s best to not comment on that.

In any case, today’s “Day in the Life of an Ohio State Optometry Student” is brought to you by procrastination… I hope you enjoy it as much as I am enjoying (yet another) study break!

So, as I mentioned in my last post, this semester has been pretty chill for me, which is a fact that I have largely loved. Despite the wonders of a free schedule though, sometimes it’s nice to spice life up a bit and have an exciting weekend.

And so that’s what I did.

This past weekend’s first excitement started with the National Optometric Student Association (NOSA) sponsored “Dinner with the Docs”. At this event, a group of 15-20 NOSA members gathered at Eddie George’s 27 Bar and Grille to eat dinner and talk with several local(ish) optometrists. Though networking is definitely not one of my strong suits, I enjoyed going and listening to each of the doctor’s stories about the paths that they chose to pursue after graduation. It proved to be a very informative few hours, and showed me just how much plans may change upon reaching the “real world”.

Part two of my exciting weekend was the EYE Spring Banquet. Though this annual event is primarily a celebration of the fourth year EYE members, it provided a fantastic excuse to dress up and spend an evening with optometry students and faculty, while eating amazing food and just having an all-around great time. I can’t wait to go back next year!

The final highlight of my weekend was sitting for a second year during his mock practical, or in other words, pretending to be a patient while a second year student performed a complete eye exam on me in preparation for his upcoming practical. Though I love in general hearing about what other people can see in my eyes, I especially loved being dilated for the second time in my life, which I used as the perfect excuse to buy my first pair of reading glasses. It was great.

Well, I really should attempt to study for tomorrow morning’s exam again.. Catch y’all later!

Hannah

Pelotonia 2016 (and Other Fun Activities)

Hey guys! Long time no see… 🙂

So, somehow this semester has completely flown by, and I now find myself 6 weeks from the official end of my first year at The Ohio State University College of Optometry.

Holy cow. That’s just crazy.

Overall, it’s been a great semester. Despite having 1-2 exams every week since February 3rd, the course load has seemed lighter, and I have finally had enough free time to branch out into new activities. Check them out!

1. The School of Professional Students Orchestra
For as long as I can remember, music has played a huge role in my life. It should come as no surprise then that spending first semester without any real musical outlet was frustrating for me. Though I had had the opportunity to join upon moving to Columbus, I was hesitant: I had never played in an orchestra before, and they already had several pianists (my main instrument) signed up. Thankfully, several other first year optometry students joined, and then coaxed me into going to a practice. I loved it. Here’s a picture of the five of us after our spring performance!

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2. Life Group
Here on campus, I call H2O my home church. During first semester, though life groups (groups of 10-20 people who get together 1-2 times a week and help each other grow spiritually, while being encouraged in every day life) were heavily emphasized, I never really explored the options that were available to graduate students. After having life groups brought up by 4 different people in a matter of days though, I decided to check them out. One week later, I found myself at a random apartment, eating food and playing games with a group of women that I had previously never met. It was a blast. Needless to say, I have now become a regular at life group, and absolutely love it.

3. Pelotonia ’16
So, I have an announcement to make.

*Ahem*
Ladies and gentlemen. I have officially decided to participate in the Pelotonia 2016. With this, I will be riding 100 miles on a hot August day to support cancer research. This year, I am joining The Ohio State University College of Optometry’s team, “The Rolling Eyes”, in support of our fellow classmate, Mark Ortiz, who is currently undergoing cancer treatments. Your donations, 100% of which will fund cancer research at The James Cancer Hospital here at OSU, would be greatly appreciated. Check out my personal story at Pelotonia.org/Hannah.Vollmer. Thank you in advance!

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Well… I think that about exhausts my excitement for tonight.

‘Til the next time!

-Hannah

TGIF

Happy Friday y’all!

So, today marked the end of the third week of second semester here at The Ohio State University College of Optometry, and (thankfully) I’m finally beginning to feel like I’ve readjusted to the daily school routine. Right now, the semester looks to be pretty straightforward in regards to class work, and so I’m rather excited (as strange as that sounds) to begin our seemingly endless cycle of testing next week! It’ll be great!

In other news, this past week marked my first time in clinic as an optometry student! Being so inundated with didactic work during the first semester (and year), it has been easy for me to lose track of the reasons that I fell in love with optomtry in the first place, and so it was great to be back in an environment where I could be reminded of how great it is to help others on a professional level.
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Here’s a pic of me and a few fellow Opt-1’s on our first day of clinic!

In my previous post, I mentioned my excited anticipation of pledging EYE, and I was not disappointed! Pledge week 2016 was honestly my favorite week and a half of optometry school thus far, and I’m super excited to continue to get to better know my fellow future Optometrists as a member of Epsilon Psi Epsilon Professional Fraternity of Optometry!

Well, I think that’s all the news I have for now!

Til the next time!
-Hannah

Optometry School: Act 1, Scene 2

So, somehow the past three weeks slipped by me, and though I meant to post and say, “I survived finals,” that obviously didn’t happen. For those of you who were wondering though…

Ahem.
I survived finals!
Okay. I’m glad I got that out of the way.

In other news…
Today marked the first day of my second semester here at The Ohio State University College of Optometry. Though I love most everything about life here at OSU, I was admittedly less than excited to come back… There’s just something about the carefree nature of winter break that makes the daily grind of graduate school studying even less appealing than normal. Oh well. I am very blessed to be here, and I am sure that this semester will be very exciting and full of new adventures!

One of those promised adventures will begin this Wednesday with the kickoff of Epsilon Psi Epsilon (EYE) Pledge Week! EYE is the only optical fraternity in the country, and provides a great way for classes to grow closer, while having fun and promoting optometry. As a member of the Greek community at my undergraduate institution, I’m excited to have the ability to “Go Greek” again in graduate school, and I can’t wait to see what all activities the pledge leaders have planned for us in the coming week!

Well, that’s all I can think of to say for now…

Catch ya later!
-Hannah

#finalsweek

Good morning all, and welcome to Finals Week!

As of this morning, finals week has officially begun.  In approximately 3 hours, I will sit down with the 67 other Opt-1’s to take my first true final of optometry school.

I am admittedly rather terrified.  I have no idea what to expect, and sincerely doubt that I know all 80 pages of notes well enough to be tested on them, but like it or not, this Pathophysiology final is coming.

And it’s coming fast.

So, I should probably get back to cramming some last minute material into my head.

Catch y’all later!

-Hannah

Final Stretch!

Good gravy. It’s December 1st… Does anyone know where this year went!?

Seriously. The past semester has flown by. It seems pretty unbelievable, but in just 3 short weeks I will be done with my first semester of Optometry School.

*Insert screaming here*

That’s just crazy to think about.

The past several weeks have, thankfully, been relatively uneventful.  Nevertheless, I’ll sum up the highlights for you.

1.Midterms Round 2

The second round of midterms, unlike the first, spanned the course of about three weeks.  Though this definitely decreased the stress of having to learn all of the material for all of the classes in (essentially) a week’s time, it also completely altered my typical studying habits. Consequently, rather than staying caught up on material, I found myself cramming for each sequential midterm.  Thankfully though, this technique proved to be relatively successful.. Which is excellent, because it’s a strategy that it looks like I’ll have to use for the quickly approaching finals week

2. Thanksgiving!

After a semi-stressful few weeks of classes, there is nothing so great as spending time with loved ones.  I was privileged enough to be able to go home for the extended weekend, and had a wonderful time cooking, feasting, and generally avoiding studying.

3. Ocular Practical

Unfortunately, skipping studying over break was not my wisest of decisions, as today, two short days after returning to school, I took my lone Ocular Anatomy practical.  It admittedly did not go well.  However, the professor, Dr. Chandler, provided coffee for us afterwards, which did a great job of distracting me from my lower than anticipated score 🙂

And will probably keep me awake for the rest of the night.

I’m okay with that though..  After all, what better time is there to start studying for next Monday’s General Anatomy practical while listening to Christmas music?

‘Til the next time!

-Hannah

Practical 1? Check!

Hello and greetings from the post-practical world!

Nearly two hours ago, I finished my first practical of optometry school, and, after several days of sporatic studying, minor stressing, and slightly less than adequate amounts of sleep, it feels great to be done.

So how was it?

Coming from an undergraduate institution that had very few practicals and none involving tissue identification, I wasn’t entirely sure how to prepare for a test in which we had less than a minute to identify a structure/tissue.  The professors and upperclassmen suggested just simply looking at slides until the images began to make sense.

Well, I guess that’s sort of obvious.

And so that’s what I did.

I’m not one to study excessively as a rule, so I only looked over the slides once or twice before the week of the practical.  During the in-class review (thank Dr. Earley!), I realized that there were still several slides that I was unable to identify.  Thankfully, several powerpoints of slides had been compiled by other members of the class, which provided the perfect supplement to my own time spent in the lab. Around 5 hours of studying and a mock practical (created by the second years)  later, I felt ready.

Well, mostly ready anyway.  As with most tests, I began to question my knowledge of the material about two hours before the start of the material.  By that time though, the test was coming whether I was ready or not.  Huzzah..right?

During the practical itself, I admittedly panicked slightly.  After looking at the first slide 4 times, I still wasn’t sure what it was, but I wrote down an answer and continued on anyway.  About halfway through, I calmed down and finally settled into my groove.  Fifteen minutes later, the practical was over and we were free to either stay and check our answers or get out of there as fast as possible.  I chose to stay, and was admittedly pretty pleased with how I did.  To celebrate?  Naturally, I went outside to study and enjoy the beautiful almost 80 degree weather.

Which is where I currently find myself.

Good day?  I think yes.

‘Til the next time!

-Hannah

Note:  For those of you who were wondering, listening to lecture recordings during long drives works excellently!  Just be careful trying to verify your identity electronically while driving…

Third Time’s a Charm!

So, after two unsuccessful attempts to write this post, I’m back for a third try.  Hopefully, this time I’ll have the words to actually complete this entry 🙂

Anyway, it’s been a crazy couple of weeks here at The Ohio State University College of Optometry!  Last Monday’s Pathophysiology  exam marked the end of an intense week and a half of straight studying in preparation for our first round of midterms.  It felt so good to be done!!  Unfortunately, there was little time for celebration (though I did take one night off to go rock wall climbing, cook a delicious dinner, and binge watch TV), as I was already behind in studying material for the second midterm.

(Helpful Tip #1: Stay on top of the material.  Yes, it sucks to study every night, but this drastically reduces stress come test time.)

Thankfully, Monday also marked the beginning of Academy week!  During Academy week, literally all of the professors travel to the American Academy of Optometry’s (AAO) Conference, which was held in New Orleans this year.  As a result, our last class of the week ended shortly after 10:00 on Wednesday morning.  While it would have been smart to stay on campus and try to catch up on the material, I decided to trek home for the long weekend.

Needless to say, I didn’t really get much studying done.  I did, however, have a great time seeing my family, attending homecoming as a Trine University alum for the first time, and seeing Celtic Woman in concert.

Good trade-off? I’d say so.

(Helpful Tip #2: If you need to study, don’t go home.  This is a pretty obvious piece of advice, but it’s one that I cannot stress enough.  After all, I’m in my fifth year of college, and I still continue to find myself under the illusion that I will actually accomplish something when I’m not at school…)

This past week (since it’s now Friday… #latenightblogging), though not terribly eventful, still proved to be a bit hectic.  Between professors trying to fit as much new information as possible into lectures before fall break, to catching up on the material that I didn’t learn during Academy week and studying for our first practical, I found myself constantly busy, and honestly a bit overwhelmed.  My main strategy for studying for the first round of midterms was to know all the information going into midterms week.  How was I going to be able to keep on that path when I was already behind?  Especially in lieu of being home for multiple weekends in a row?

Thank God for lecture recordings.

(Helpful Tip #3: If you have to travel long distances and are afraid of getting behind, this tip is for you.  Check out the lecture recordings!  As far as I have discovered, they’re not currently available for download, but they can easily be streamed through a phone or iPad and listened to during the trip…which is my current plan for studying during the at least 15 hours of traveling that I will be doing in the next several days.  I’ll let you know how it turns out!)

Well, it’s getting later, and I should probably attempt to catch up on sleep sometime..

Happy Fall Break!

-Hannah

*Blogging afterthought: Well, it took me 14 hours, but this post is actually going to be published!

#letsblog

Woah.  First blog post for The Ohio State University College of Optometry.

I feel like I should say something monumental.

Unfortunately though, after a 5:00 start, 5 hours straight of class, and an additional almost 5 hours of studying in preparation for the first round of midterms, my brain is not functioning well enough for impressive introductions.  That should make this more interesting, right?

In any case, welcome to my blog!

My name’s Hannah, and I’m a current Opt-1 here at Ohio State.  In the past month, I have uprooted myself from rural Northwest Ohio and traveled to the beautiful city of Columbus to begin this crazy adventure called graduate school.

It has honestly been the most terrifyingly exciting endeavor in my life thus far.

But I love it.

In four short weeks, I have fallen in love with this city, this school, and all of the amazing people that surround me, and I am so excited to watch these four weeks turn into four years.

#letsblog!

-Hannah