A slight bump in the road...

Well...in light of what has happened over the past 2 weeks here in the south, the phrase "don't sweat the small stuff" is resonating with me. After my last post I made myself take a few days to catch my breath so to speak. I think that the enormity of graduate school started to hit me and I started to panic, which started to affect my grades. I'm such a perfectionist that anything below my standards sets me into a panic. (Go ahead and admit what you're thinking-this chick is neurotic!) Before you judge me though let me give you a little background into my panic attack. It is the school's policy that you cannot make below an 80 on any 4 tests in the entire program. When I went to sit and take our first patho exam this of course is on my mind, which uncharacteristically initiated  a pretty extreme case of testing anxiety. I pretty much blanked. Needless to say I didn't do as well as I had hoped.This of course made me question everything.
The great thing about our program though is the support that you get from your classmates, who may be hundreds of miles away and yet know exactly what you're going through and how you're feeling. A few conversations with some of my group members brought everything into perspective and let me know that I'm not alone. I'm happy to report that last night I got the house quiet and I focused on my exam and I passed. With my average now safely intact for now, my confidence is back and I'm ready to plow ahead. I'm still very much excited about this journey and I've got my eye on the prize.

Next week I'll be speaking to a group of H.S. students about my love of midwifery and I can't wait to share that with all of you (even you wonderful people who are reading but not subscribing to my blog) :)
On a much more somber note, my heart is aching and my prayers are with those who are mourning the loss of life from this insane outbreak of weather. It hasn't gone unnoticed that if not for the grace of God, it could be me and my family. My brother came dangerously close to a monstrous tornado 2 weeks ago and thankfully the funnel clouds that have hovered over my house several times in the last couple of weeks have not done any damage. As always if any of you have the means to do so, lets give our neighbors a hand and let them know we care.