Goals...

In my last post I mentioned that I have a few goals I would like to share with you.  I have been trying to identify things that I can do to challenge myself to improve and I figure sharing these goals on my blog will help me stay motivated and accountable.  I have a good friend who does this on a monthly basis and I loved the idea so here goes...

I picked areas of my life that I need accountability in and split my goals up accordingly.

School - This is why I am in GA, so it is a given that I need to set goals in this area of my life.
Goal 1:  Prepare for lectures.  I have been pretty good at keeping up with course content after lecture but I know it would benefit me to review the material before lecture.  Throughout my college education I have never pushed myself to prepared for upcoming lectures but I would like to make this a habit.  My goal is to skim the chapters that will be covered in lecture and lab the day before class.  I figure I should start small, so glancing through the chapters shouldn't be unmanageable.
Goal 2:  Focus on school but still maintain my sanity.  I can honestly say that I have been incredibly diligent with my study habits over the past 4 weeks.  I feel like I have done nothing but study.  This definitely caught up to me this past week in our first big exam.  I usually never get nervous for exams but I was nervous for our first one last week.  I psyched myself out and this was directly reflected on my exam score.  I made silly mistakes and got into my head too much.  This last week was incredibly frustrating but a good lesson for me.  I know that studying is important but I need to also work to maintain balance in my life so I don't let the pressure I put on myself steamroll me.  I am not sure how I will capture this one, but I am going to try to keep life in perspective and remember to take breaks and enjoy this phase of my life.

Health and Wellness - I know part of maintaining my sanity while at school is to take care of my body by eating right and exercising. 
Goal 1: Exercise at least 5 days a week.  I have been sticking to this pretty consistently through the month of September.  I have stickers that I put on my calendar on the days that I exercise in order to keep track of my progress.  This may sound silly but it is positive reinforcement for me and I get excited when I get to place a sticker on the calendar! (I sound like I am 7 years old..... but it works for me!) :)
Goal 2:  Jon and I have set up a little wager, that I initiated.  I know I am not at the healthiest weight I can be and I want to change this.  Most of you know that Jon will leave foor basic training soon and will be there for approximately 9 weeks.  Our wager is if I lose 12 pounds by his basic training graduation, then he will buy me a new outfit to wear to his graduation.  I had to talk him into this but I think it will be good motivation for me and give me something to focus on.  It will be fun to see if I can stay motivated long enought to accomplish this.

Finances - My budget is rather tight this semester so this is not only an area that I want to improve on, but one I need to improve in order to stay afloat in the next couple of months.
Goal 1:  Keep my food budget to $150 a month.  This is shaping up to be more difficult than I expected.  To date for the month of September I have spent $160.  So that means I currently have no money for food throughout this week.  Don't worry, I have enough food to get me by; however, I am more afraid that I will run out of coffee this week…eeek!
Goal 2:  Keep the rest of my spending to a minimum and be creative with what I have in order to make my money go further.  This goal is harder to define and rate whether or not I am accomplishing it, but my main focus is to be diligent about not spending money on frivolous things and only spend money on what I really need. 

Community - I want to get to know Augusta better and I want to push myself to learn more about the community around me.

Goal 1: Get involved in some sort of consistent community service opportunity.  I have been playing with the ideas in my head of trying to volunteer at the VA or finding a homeless shelter to invest my time into.  I haven't taken the initiative yet to get connected with either one of these, so vocalizing this goal will hopefully 'kick me in the butt' and get me going on this. 

Goal 2:  Get to know my classmates.  I feel like I have gotten to know a handful of students in my program but I want to push myself to really get to know them more and on a more personal level.  I know I have the tendency to fall into the routine of separating myself from others.  I am friendly but am usually very choosy about who I share personal information with.  Because of this I often feel like it is hard to make new friends.  I want to work at being more open with others and allowing them to do the same.

Goal 3: Post on my blog at least twice a week.  I feel like there are so many things I want to share with all of you but I don't do the best job of making time to sit down and blog about it.  I love staying connected with friends and family and I know I need to do a better job of being consistent about it.

So there you have it.  Hopefully I can stay accountable for these and help myself grow in the process. 

Adjusting to School Life

Hello all.  I feel like I am finally getting a routine down with school.  I have a consistent schedule, study pattern, and a exercise schedule.   I am in my 4th week of classes and I feel like I have finally adjusted... or at least I hope I have!  Even though adjusting back to school life has been interesting, I can tell you that I AM LOVING MY CLASSES!  I truely do love learning, especially about the human body.  (NERD ALERT, NERD ALERT)  The best part of our classes so far has been the labs.  We are currently learning the steps of the physical assessment, have already learned about ostomies, chest tubes, wound vacs, and today was nasogastric tubes. 

The other class I am really enjoying is Pathophysiology.  I am having to do a lot of review in this class to refresh my memory on Human Anatomy concepts, since I took human anatomy during the summer of 2006, but I enjoy the review and I love being able to apply what we learn in Patho to what we see in lab.

So now that you know that I am alive and that classes are going well, I want to share some typical moments with you...

 Here is what my evenings usually look like.  Studying for upcoming assessments, quizzes or exams. 

And here is my friend, the gecko... At least I think it is a gecko because he looks like the animal selling car insurance on the commercials.  At first I didn't know what to think of this little creature when I found him next to my door but then I heard that they eat cockroaches so instantaneously I decided that we could be friends. (Even if the roaches here are bigger than this little guy).   Speaking of roaches, you all will be happy to know that my apartment has been roach free for the past 2 weeks.  I think it is largely due to the fact that my dad and Jon did such a wonderful job sealing up my doors and I spray weekly.  

I also want to share with you goals that I have set for myself while I am here, but I will get to those in my next post.  So stay tuned!