Two Years

Two years ago I stepped onto the campus of A.T. Still University for the first time. A week of orientation started it off and then we hit the ground running with a blur of information being thrown at us week after week. For two years I drove 30 miles to school every morning and 30 miles back at the end of the day. For two years I spent the majority of my time reading and studying the human body and all that can go wrong with it and how to fix it. For two years I spent full days (sometimes 8-10 hour days) at school in classes only to come home and spend my nights on the computer studying. For two years I endured a constant stream of tests, quizzes, and projects. I spent two years in a constant state of stress, focused on surviving to the next quarter in the curriculum. Then after two years, I got my white doctor's coat symbolizing that I was in the last stage of my curriculum and about to enter the profession. After two years, I closed my computer, packed my stuff, walked out of the building, walked out to the parking lot, and drove off campus for the last time. After two years of graduate school and six years of college in total I said goodbye to the classroom. Now I step into the world of clinicals where I test how much information I actually retained and will work to put that knowledge to use toward trying to heal people. Now in one year, I will drop the title of Mr. Palmer and will adopt the title of Dr. Palmer.

It was a strange feeling on Thursday when we ended our last formal class at A.T. Still University. Everyone closed their laptops, stood up, packed their stuff, and looked around as if they weren't quite sure what to think or say. We were done. It was as if after two years of being submerged under water we got to come up and breathe fresh air for the first time. After all that time of having our heads down and fighting to survive in the program we all finally got to look up and realize that just as quickly as it had started, it was now over.

Words can't fully express what those two years meant to me. They were the hardest and most trying two years of my life. They challenged me and broke me in every way possible. To be done with those years is the biggest relief I have ever experienced. I never have to step foot in a classroom for a formal class again.