My First Post!

Hello Everyone!

My name is Taylor Williams, and I am a first year student here at The Ohio State College of Optometry. Last week, and continuing to Monday, was our first round of midterms, so it has definitely been a crazy and busy time for us Opt. 1s (first year optometry school students)! I would like to use this first blog post to talk a little bit about myself, why I chose optometry and Ohio State, and about my experience in the first 6 weeks of optometry school.

About Me

I am a Columbus native and was born and raised in a suburb right outside of the city. Since I lived in that same area all throughout high school, for undergrad, I decided to get out of Ohio and experience a different part of the country. I went to North Carolina where I attended North Carolina A&T State University, a moderately sized HBCU (historically black college/ university) in Greensboro, NC, and I received my Bachelors of Science degree in Biology. Coming back to Ohio for Optometry School has definitely been a transition, but one that I am enjoying every minute of! I love being back home with my family, meeting new people, and having a lot of new experiences.

Why I Chose Optometry and Ohio State

For as long as I can remember going to the eye doctor, I remember always having a great experience. From being asked if I saw better with “1 or 2” to getting fitted for my new glasses, I was always excited when it came time for my annual eye exam. When I told my optometrist about my interest, he suggested that if I was still interested in the field in high school that I could shadow him, and that’s exactly what I did! After shadowing him and working in his practice during my senior year of high school, I completely fell in love with the profession. One thing that I loved about the field was that optometrists have a daily impact on patient’s lives by performing eye exams that improve vision and detect different diseases. Another thing that I loved about the field was that optometrists have the option to specialize in pediatric eye care, low vision, or even vision therapy!

From then on, I fully committed myself to doing whatever I had to do to become an optometrist. This included majoring in biology and learning everything I could about optometry. When it came time to apply to optometry school during the summer before my senior year of college, I was definitely a mix of emotions! I decided to apply to five optometry schools, however, Ohio State, since my freshman year of college, had always been my favorite for many of reasons. First, and most importantly, I wanted earn my degree from one of the top optometry programs in the country. Secondly, I wanted to be close to home, and finally, I had always wanted to become a Buckeye! After I found out I was accepted, I was completely over the moon. Not only had I been accepted to optometry school, I had been accepted at Ohio State! Becoming an optometrist is one of my biggest aspirations, and this acceptance was the first step to my dream coming true! Throughout the rest of my senior year of undergrad and all throughout the summer, I could not wait for optometry school to start! I must say, these first six weeks have lived up to their hype.

My Experience in the First Six Weeks

We started on Friday, August 21^st with our first day of orientation. During orientation, we were able to meet our professors, Dean Zadnik, and interact with our classmates. A couple of us were able to get together over the summer, however, for those that I hadn’t already met, it was definitely fun to finally put a face to the names of classmates I had “friended” on Facebook. At the end of the day, we were invited to the EYE house to meet 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th year students, which was also really fun! It was great to hear from them about the things we could look forward to in upcoming years. The weekend’s festivities didn’t end there, though. On Sunday, we were invited to a big sib/little sib picnic at Fred Beekman Park. There, we were able to meet our big sib (a second year student), and they were able to give us advice about how to be successful during our first year of optometry school. On Monday, August 24^th, we had another day of orientation. During Monday afternoon we were able to interact with students from other professional schools including students of the medical, dental, and pharmacy schools just to name a few. This interaction was very beneficial because during the session, we took time to discuss the duties of each profession and we discussed how all of our professions interacted in ways that we weren’t even aware.

Tuesday the 25^th of August was our first day of class, and ever since then, it feels like these first six weeks have flown by. Reflecting back, I am so amazed by all of the information we have already learned, and still can’t believe how many different processes really goes on in the eye. The classes we are taking this semester are General Anatomy, Pathophysiology I, Ocular Anatomy, Geometric Optics, Practice of Optometry, Introduction to Primary Care Testing I, and Optometric Career Options and Financing. What I love about optometry school is the fact that everything that we are learning about pertains to things we will see in the future with our patients. Everything in classes like Ocular Anatomy and Geometric Optics pertains to the eyes or lenses, but in classes like Pathophysiology and General Anatomy where we learn about general diseases that can affect the entire body, our professors always do a good job of explaining how these diseases would manifest in the eye.

Being very frank, optometry school is hard! It is not like undergrad where you could study a week before a test and be okay, or maybe forget some of the information you learned in classes like sociology or pottery because you didn’t really need it for your future. All of the information that we are learning is information that we have to retain and really understand because we will be using all of it in the future. Also, I’m definitely not able to study only a week in advance anymore. I have to stay on top of the material and study every night, so I don’t get behind when test time rolls around. It has definitely been a transition learning how to study more effectively and retain information for tests, but the fact that I enjoy all of the material that is being taught has really helped!

These six weeks have been a lot of work, but also so much fun! I’m excited to become even closer to my classmates, and learn even more material this semester, next semester, and for the next three years! I can’t wait to see what experiences are in store for me as a buckEYE!