Last Summer As a Student

Taken at the boardwalk in Eureka, California

Summer has always been one of my favorite seasons! This summer has been unique since it’s my last summer as a student (the summer between your first and second year of medical school is your last summer as a student) and because of COVID-19. Some of my travel plans had to be postponed and/or cancelled, due to the various mandatory quarintine rules when traveling to different states. Also here in California churchs, gyms, nail salons, hair salons, and other indoor activities have been temporarily shut down again.

So, what have you been doing for your last summer as a student?

I’ve been up to a few things this summer. As mentioned in one of my previous post, my fiance and I are still wedding planning for our wedding this fall, Lord willing. We took our engagement photos, did pre-marital counseling with one of our pastor’s at our church, and we are now planning the little details of our big day. Wedding planning is pretty time consuming, so we make sure to take some days off from wedding planning.

I’ve also been catching up on sleep this summer. Although they recommend that you get seven hours of sleep a night while in medical school, the harsh reality is that you won’t always get seven hours of sleep a night. So, nearly every day this summer I’ve been making sure I get at least 7.5 hours of sleep a night (I’ve been leaning more towards eight to ten hours of sleep). The sleep is much needed and appreciated.

Getting back into my exercise routine has also been one of my top priorities for this summer. I was able to enjoy some time in the gym, when the gyms here in California temporarily opened up; however, since the gyms are closed again I’ve gotten back into walking and doing other types of at-home workouts. It’s not ideal, but at least its something.

To unwind I’ve gotten back into playing video games and reading for leisure. I’ve been a huge gamer for years now, so it was hard not playing any kind of video games for a whole school year. I would be lying if I said I didn’t binge play Call of Duty Modern Warfare and some other games (including trying to platinum more games - if you have a PS4, you know exactly what I’m talking about). I’ve also been reading a couple of books I’ve been wanting to read for some time now. Some of them I’ve already purchased at the bookstore or on kindle, it was just finding the time to actually read them. I know I won’t be able to play video games or read for leisure like this in a while, so I’m taking full advantage of my summer freetime.

Although some of my travel plans were messed up, my fiance and I started taking random roadtrips to various places in California (mainly places we haven’t been to before). Taking a roadtrip during the COVID-19 pandemic has been quite interesting. Most places are drive-thru only or they won’t allow you to use their bathrooms. It kinda sucks, but at least most of the gas stations bathrooms were available to use. We thought ahead and just packed our food to-go, so we didn’t have to stop for fast food. Our recent road trip was to Eureka, California, which is on the northern coast. It is much slower paced than the Bay Area, so it was nice unwind in that sense. Plus, some of the scenery there was breath taking!

Since I’m trickling down to my last two weeks of summer, I’d like to be more intentional about my time. I know some other medical students take the time to study or participate in research or shadowing opportunities, but I’d like to continue to relax and enjoy the rest of my summer.