“Just a day, just an ordinary day…” of an Opt 1 Student!
Hey everyone! It’s been a while since my last blog post because not much has been going on in February except midterms and snowy, winter weather. However, on Valentine’s Day, I attended the American Optometric Student Association’s (AOSA) EyeBall along with many other optometry students of all classes, their guests and many professors too! The EyeBall (great name, I know 🙂 ) is an annual formal event held at a beautiful hall downtown to celebrate the year so far. There was wonderful food, dancing and even student selected awards for classmates and professors. It was so much fun and something I will look forward to every year now.
A group of Opt I’s at the EyeBall!
My roommate and fellow first year, Dee, and I at the EyeBall, too!
Today I’m going to write my post throughout the day to give you a little idea of what daily life is like for a first year! This will just be a little insight into what my classmates and I spend our days doing but isn’t representative of exactly what everyone does. Wednesdays are more of a class-heavy day compared to others so not everyday is exactly like this either. Today I got up nice and early to eat breakfast and start my post because we start class at 8 am. I’m running a little late (as usual!) so luckily the college is a short walk from my apartment. On to the first class, Optics of the Eye!
Break time! In between each class we have about ten minutes free to get coffee or a snack, chat, ask our professors questions or regroup before the next class. There are places very close to the college to run for food and drinks, including the new hospital cafeteria, Bistr-OH! or the Starbucks in the Prior Health Sciences Library. I’m updating my posts in our little breaks today. I also wrote a little bit of this post while hanging out in the new student lounge. It is now one of my favorite places in the school because it has nice comfy chairs and awesome new Ohio State and optometry artwork!
Back to class… this morning, after Optics we have Pathophysiology for two hours and then an hour of Epidemiology and Bio Statistics. After these lectures, we had a short class meeting and then an hour break for lunch. I usually go home for lunch because I live close and don’t usually get up with enough time to pack! On days where there are information sessions or when I have clinic in the afternoon I’ll pack and eat in the lunchroom, like many other students.
After lunch we have two one-hour classes, Physical Optics & Photometry and Ocular Physiology. On certain weeks, such as this one, I have lab for Optics of the Eye for two hours. We don’t have this lab every week but instead, spread out throughout the semester. I like going to lab because it is hands-on and really helps demonstrate the topics we are learning in class, often in a clinical or real-life setting.
After lab, I did a quick workout I found on Pinterest, ate dinner and then headed to the library for a couple hours. Even though we don’t have any exams this week, I like to go to the library to keep on top of the material and also because I don’t usually stay on task if I study at home! After the library, I had some time to go get ice cream with my roommates, watch Netflix and relax at the end of the day. I hope this helped you realize that being an optometry student is manageable and not like everyday is a crazy studying marathon. It’s a lot of hard work and dedication, yes, but also very rewarding. Thanks for reading along throughout my day; hope you had a good one too!