Freedom!!!

I've finally finished what has been the most intense 5 weeks of studying in my life. Last Saturday I took Step 1 of the Boards, a fun little 8 hour test. I'd spent the last 5 weeks spending about 12-14 hours a day preparing for the test, and still felt like there was a ton of stuff that I still needed to learn. But now it's all over and all I can do is wait 6 weeks until my score comes back to see how I did. I didn't feel like I kicked it in the face (sorry Jason, I tried), but I never felt great about my practice tests and seemed to do okay on those. Hopefully my score will be high enough to enable me to get into the residency that I want (and no, I still don't know what that is). I'm incredibly grateful for Linzi, though. She has put up with all my studying and absentmindedness with so much patience and support, even though she was busy herself with school and work. Thanks Linz.

I spent most of my time studying at a local community college. It was quite a unique crowd that was there. I'm going to miss the kid that said "I'll be back" to the library as he was leaving one Friday night in his best Terminator impression. I'll miss the kid that randomly stopped as I was eating lunch to show me a card trick. He was trying his best, but unfortunately I missed the climax of his performance as I was pausing my iPod to give him my full attention. Whoops! That was an awkward encounter, but I loved it! I'll miss the lady with really red hair that sat next to me as I studied and even said that she'd pray for me. I'll miss the kid that would drop out of a tree every afternoon at about 2pm. Why was he up there? I have no idea but it did brighten my day as I sat studying by the window to see a kid randomly fall from a tree and then just walk away as if what he'd done was completely normal. Anyhoo, I will not miss doing nothing but studying all day long, almost losing my mind. I won't miss getting a parking ticket on the one day I decided to park in the "visitor's" parking lot after avoiding it all summer because I thought I'd get a ticket. And I especially won't miss not being able to hang out with Linzi.

But now we're both done and get to go back to Utah for a couple of weeks to visit our families. It's going to be a great trip.