Alex, PA-S

We are called Auggies!

This was the week.  I took a jump, made the plunge, attended orientation, and started PA school.

The whole experience was a little surreal.  The whole time I was taking my prereqs I would see Augsburg off the highway and think maybe, just maybe, I would end up there some day.  After I was accepted 6 months ago, every time I've driven by the exit I've thought "some day soon I'll be getting off here for my first day of school."  And this past Monday, it happened.

Day 1 was orientation.  They had the day filled with introductions, information sessions, tours, ID pictures, a potluck lunch provided by the staff and second years, and a small smattering of goofy team-building games.  I got to meet my assigned mentor in the second-year class, the professors and staff upon whom so much of my future will depend, and the 27 other dewy-eyed new PA students I will be sharing more time with than with my family for the next 16 months (once we start clinicals I'll have new people to see more than I see my family).

We only have class Monday-Thursday, so after Monday's orientation it was a 3-day week for class.  Anatomy will be everyday, and Pathophysiology will meet Tuesday and Thursday mornings.  The instructor who teaches these classes heads the MBA program for 10 months out of the year using his years of experience in the business world, and oh yeah, just happens to have a doctorate in anatomy and cellular biology and used to teach medical students at Harvard, so this is how he relaxes over the summer.  He is staggeringly knowledgeable.

Week one of Anatomy has consisted of learning the bones, muscles, nerves, and other tissues of the back, along with all of their unique structures and functions.  Now that we've got the back down, we just have the whole rest of the body to go.

I asked him how this class compares to what a med school student would be taught.  He said we are getting the same level of detail.  It's going to be a busy summer.

So far Pathophysiology has been a review of everything you ever learned about cell structure and function, times infinity.  We are picking up speed quickly and will spend the summer learning about how disease works in the body.

So far making and dedicating myself to studying has been a bit of a challenge.  I am not someone who can sit down and read a book for hours, committing everything to memory.  If you are one of those people:

One week in and I'm hanging on.  It's going to be a busy summer.  

Gulp.

Off to school on my first day.