Life by PJ

Hello all! Well, the new year is quickly closing in on us. 2014 has been a crazy year for me, and I honestly wouldn't have changed a thing. And from looking at the flood of "Your Year in Reviews" on Facebook, it looks like everyone else has been having quite the year too! (I deleted mine after seeing that it didn't include me getting into dental school. Because it's not like that was my ultimate life goal for the last 10 years or anything.) So here's the second installment of my six part interview series! The only thing I knew about Pittsburgh before visiting it was that I heard a rumor that if you put a lit lighter under a running faucet the water will light on fire (Pretty sure this is false. Maybe it was true at one point, but I'm sure they have this under control now.) One of the dentists I worked with over the summer went to Pittsburgh and convinced me to apply there and after visiting I could see why he encouraged me so much. I loved it! After ...

Happy Two Days After Christmas! I meant to write this sooner but you know me when I'm on vacation. I'm currently extremely busy working my way through the Lakebed Temple in the Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for the Wii, which is basically a full time job.  This is risky business. Do not try at home. Anyway, I've also been busy: shopping online shopping eating sleeping excessively watching movies making Christmas cookies eating Christmas cookies etc. etc. Christmas was wonderful this year! Jeff bought me my very own (fake) chinchilla! I've basically been talking his ear off about chinchillas recently, so he decided that buying me a plushie chinchilla was a much better idea than a real one. Did you know chinchillas can live to be 25 years old? Neither did Jeff, but he does now! So the stuffed one will have to suffice for the time being. I still can't believe that Christmas is over and my winter break is *gasp* almost to an end. I ...

Monday morning at exactly 9:00 a.m. my phone's screen lit up. An unknown number had dialed my phone, and I almost broke down when I saw the town it was from: Ann Arbor, Michigan. I picked up the phone in a state of full-on panic, my breath escaping me. Yes, I was Patricia. Yes, I was having a good day. And then the voice at the other end of the line told me I was in. At this point in time, I wanted to break down but I knew I couldn't. I thanked her graciously. And then there was more news - a scholarship. A very, very big scholarship. It took everything I had to not cry and quickly get off the phone before making a fool of myself. I squeaked out a thank you, hung up the phone, and lost it. I completely lost it, I don't remember the last time I've cried that much and I just couldn't help it. Thank goodness I was in my apartment getting ready for the day and not in public or else I would've been sent to some sort of therapist. As I've been explaining i...

Today I am thankful for many things. Thanksgiving is always a time to reflect on the things we are thankful for, but I feel like this year I have so, so many reasons to express my gratitude. Even more than usual. My life is basically a dream. Don't get me wrong, I'm not prancing around like Princess Middleton with people waiting on me hand and foot, but I can't even express how happy I am right now. I have a family who loves me and supports me unconditionally, I have friends who are always there for me, and I have an amazing fiancé who makes me happy to be alive every time I'm with him. Most importantly, I have my Grandma B. She was diagnosed with breast cancer a few years ago and has been battling it ever since. So above all, I am thankful for every holiday I get to spend with her. It's cliche but you really don't appreciate people for who they are until you're scared you might not be able to anymore. Reflecting on all these things in my life, it makes m...

Well Blogosphere, I am home. Home sweet home. Home is where the heart is. Home is where I don't have to change out of my pajamas all day. (Don't act like you don't do that too.) Thanksgiving is upon us, which means that I can feast on my Grandma's delicious homemade food and pretend like I care about football for 4 hours. But really, Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays. After dinner, my family and I quiz each other with turkey day trivia - something we've been doing for as long as I can remember. And even though the questions are the same every year, I still am just as bad as the year before. There's just something about turkey trivia that just doesn't stick with me. By the way, did you know that t urkeys are the only breed of poultry native to the Western Hemisphere? Well now you do! Go...team? It is now 6 days until December 1st. On the one hand, I want the day to come as soon as possible so I can stop freaking out. (And I...

Where's Kelly Rowland? Because I'm in need of some motivation. (Ha! See what I did there?) I've finished two exams this week, and now I have to study for my third one on Friday. Needless to say after my exam today, I am exhausted. I was in the library until 12:30 last night and I got up early to go back to the library at 9:00 this morning to study for Immunology before my exam. I don't know of any of you have taken Immunology, but it is not a good time. I took Immunology because a dental student recommended that I take it, since it's such a challenging course in dental school and any exposure I could get to it before then would be beneficial. So I took it! And really, it is really interesting! And I have an awesome professor, which always helps. But oh my goodness. The human body is an extremely complex system, as I'm sure you all know, and your immune system is ESPECIALLY complicated. As I was telling a friend the other day, after taking this class, I have n...

How's it going team? You hanging in there? Going strong? I have 3 exams this week; I look at it like a preliminary finals week- you know, just giving me a fun little taste of what's to come. So don't mind me if I seem a little... loopy. I was at Club Library for about 12 hours yesterday. At one point, I looked up and was startled by the wall behind me. That's when I left. (You have to watch those sneaky walls! They'll get you!) Last weekend was my sorority's semi-formal, which was a super fun night. I enjoyed being able to dance and forget about all of the stressors in my life for a little while. Plus my fiancé (I have to use that term whenever possible, since it's just so much fun!) came up for the weekend to be my date. He also helped me out when I was at the library by doing a Burger King run, because does everyone get super hungry when they're studying or is that just me? In whatever case, it was much appreciated, because nothing can soothe my anxi...

Tired of waiting for December 1st? Is every minute lazily passing by a million times slower than the one before? Have you studied every thread on the Student Doctor Network forums so many times your eyes have gone crossed? Never fear! I've put together a list of ways you can make those 26 days (I'm not counting) before the first day of Dental School decisions are released pass by in a flash! 1.) Take up a new hobby! Ever thought about picking up a musical instrument? Well, there's no time like the present. Now you can finally be the harpist, flutist, or acoustic guitar player you've always known you could be! 2.) Solve a jigsaw puzzle. The more pieces the better. Buy one with a peaceful, serene theme, such as boats on a river, or palm trees swaying in the wind. Best to stay away from anything emotionally stirring. 3.) Express yourself creatively. A great way to get out some of those feelings is materializing them . Paint a picture, sculpt a statue, make some pottery.  ...

Remember me? I feel like I always start my blog posts out by apologizing for how long its been since I've last written, so in keeping with this tradition, I'm sorry it took so long to get this out here. Moving on. My life is crazy. Absolutely crazy. But, I wouldn't want to have it any other way. So what has happened since I've last checked in? Well, probably the biggest thing has been that I got engaged! When my boyfri, er, fiance... and I visited Canada last July, he popped the question! We've set a date, which is June 13th, 2015. Now I know what you're thinking, "Wow that's super fast!" And to respond to you a.) we've been dating for five years this November, b.) I've been wanting to marry him for around 4 years (what can I say? I know what I want!), and c.) we really wanted to get married before I started dental school. So as if planning a wedding doesn't add enough stress (fun stress, but still stress) to this semester, the...

Happy Tuesday! Today has been a busy day. I got an extremely rude wake-up call from my alarm clock at 5:00 am. (the nerve) since I had to be at my work site by 6:30 a.m. and it's almost an hour away from my house. Exciting announcement alert! I got a job! In the dental field! (Crazy right, when does that opportunity ever present itself for us non-trained pre-dental hopefuls?) Right when school ended, I contacted every dental clinic in my community asking if they needed any volunteers. I felt pretty defeated when I didn't hear anything back from any of them for a long time. But then miraculously, one contacted me and said that their HR department wouldn't let me volunteer in the clinic (bummer), but they had a job opening for a dental clerk in their summer fluoridation clinic (yay!) I jumped on the opportunity, made a resume, contacted my references and applied the very next day. I then had an interview scheduled within the next week and prepared myself the best I could. ...

Hello all, and sorry for the extended absence!  After finals week rolls around, I'm usually so caught up in my summer plans that my blogging goes by the wayside, which is exactly what happened a couple months ago. But, I'm back! And ready to type. After my last final in April, I immediately went home and got busy working on my personal statement. (Some people say type-A, I just say well prepared.) And boy did that personal statement take me longer than I thought it would. I had written many drafts, beginning as early as last summer at SMDEP, but none of them resonated with me. But when it came down to crunch time, I became inspired as all writers do with an impending deadline, and drafted something that came directly from my heart (and my keyboard.) I'm so proud of it, it makes me giddy. I never expected to have one 4500 character document explain me so perfectly. But I'm not going to say it was all sunshine and rainbows - it was pretty difficult at points trying to...

Hello Everyone and Happy New Year! I just got done taking my DAT this weekend and due to the two snow days my college has called for today and tomorrow, I decided that I could use the extra time to write a How-To Guide of sorts for taking the DAT. I don't know about any of you pre-dentals reading this right now, but I read a lot of online DAT guides before my exam that terrified me. I kept reading things like, "I studied for 12 hours a day for 6 months before the exam," "I completed the DAT Destroyer 15 times and memorized it forward and backward," and "I sold my soul and gave up my first-born child for a 20 or better." (Okay, maybe the last one is a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the point.) I knew that I would never be able to live up to these expectations and I figured that I would also fall short in my score because of this. I was extremely busy in the months leading up to my DAT, and I know many of you will be too. We're pre-dentals! Be...