I'm backkkkkk! How's that for a long hiatus? Where do I begin? The past month has been absolutely crazy. How about a quick recap?

My husband and I celebrated one year of marriage on June 13! 

One year of marriage went by so quickly! I'm not sure I would have made it through this past year of school without the constant support of my husband - everything from picking up the slack around the house to consoling me during one of my freak-outs. He is ten times more patient, kind, and thoughtful than I'll ever hope to be but somehow he still stick by me. Even more, I'm so proud of all of his accomplishments at work. You'll never meet a more driven or hard working man. Over all, year one of marriage has treated us very well! We're both healthier and certainly "lighter" than a year ago but our relationship as a whole has continued to grow and strength. Definitely our best year yet! 

I took COMLEX on June 16! 

I'm working on a post solely dedicated to boards - my plan and how it worked out (spoiler alert: I passed!). 

My person got married on June 20.

One of my very best med school friends, the Cristina to my Meredith, got married in Louisville after boards! I was honored to be asked to do a reading during her ceremony (which was on a rooftop - beautiful!). We had a great time dancing the night away and celebrating with friends!

We visited family in Cincinnati and then took an anniversary trip to Seattle.

Since we didn't take a honeymoon last year, we decided to take a week long trip to Seattle! Why? Why not. We pretty much ate (& drank) our way across the city of Seattle for 5 days. Everything from oyster po boys to 8 different styles of chowder to fresh prawns. Oh and the coffee! So great. We discovered a new love of ours - ginger beer! Perfect for refreshing cocktails. We went on a brewery tour, watched a Mariners game, saw Kenny Chesney in concert, and more. Just a really great, relaxing trip!

We celebrated July 4th with friends!

Our last celebration before third year began. What's more American than an Indiana cornfield, some drinks, a little corn hole, and a bonfire? We had a great time!

I started my third year of medical school in the Emergency Department!

And then before I knew it, it was time to start my third year. I'm already wrapping up my first Emergency Medicine rotation. Where did July go? 2 more shifts in the ED & an EMS ride-along to go!

So that's an overview of what's been going on and why I've been pretty absent on the blog. So glad that I finally have exciting things to write about again instead of boards studying. Real patients with real problems! So much more to come - stay tuned! 

After many months of long study days, thousands of practice questions, and more sitting than I ever wish to do again in my life, I AM DONE WITH BOARDS. (at least until Step 2).

Some people have been asking HOW I prepared for boards but I'm going to hold off on that until I know how well I did. I would hate to give out poor advice! I will say that my school provided us with a program that we were required to complete. Lots of pros and cons to this that I'll be happy to discuss in the future. I also supplemented with UWorld, USMLERx and COMQUEST question banks and Pathoma. My ultimate point of reference was the med school bible aka First Aid. 

I have NO CLUE how things went yesterday. COMLEX is known for being very vague. There were a ton of questions where I was able to narrow it down to two answers. Praying that I made the right choices! Throughout the test I just felt so strange, not sure how else to describe it. The exam didn't feel like any of the practice I had done.  

Another issue of note. It was originally my plan to take both the MD boards (USMLE) and DO boards (COMLEX) but I eventually settled on just taking COMLEX. I wasn't confident enough that I could hit my USMLE goal and I didn't want to risk performing below average. Better to focus all my energy on doing as well on COMLEX as possible, than risk having two low scores. I hope I won't regret it! Honestly though, after taking one 8 hour exam I'm not sure where I would find the mental strength to take another. 

So...now we wait. I'm trying to resist the temptation to look up the answers to things or dwell on what I could have done better. It's over. Board scores are a pretty important portion of my future residency application and obviously I need to pass them to graduate! At this point there is nothing else I can do so I'm just gonna celebrate and enjoy life!

The next few weeks are going to be so FUN! This weekend one of my very best friends from med school is getting married in Louisville! After that we are going to Cincinnati for a few days before boarding a plane to SEATTLE! Ahhhh I'm so excited! 

We didn't get to go on a honeymoon after the wedding last year so we're taking our belated honeymoon/anniversary trip now. Why Seattle? Why not? We aren't really big beach vacation people so we decided to check out somewhere different. Our goal is to visit all the Major League Baseball parks - two years ago we went to Atlanta and now we'll check another off our list. 

After Seattle, I have hospital orientation and on July 6th I start my third year rotations. Life is flying by and I'm another step closer to becoming a doctor!

Also, don't forget that Weigh In Wednesday has been passed down to Winter @ No Drama Little Mama so go check that out and link up! As for me? I've been maintaining my Whole30 weight loss and slowly chipping away at my goals. The last week has been hit or miss with my workouts but I'm looking forward to the study-free life.