The light at the end of the tunnel...

For the first time in 4yrs, it seems to actually be the light of day, rather than the headlight of another oncoming train.  I am down to ONE day of med school. Absolutely crazy.  I don't think that reality has really sunk in for any of us.  We all know we're almost done (or already done for some of my friends), but it just doesn't seem totally real.  Maybe it will after graduation.  Probably it won't until after a week or so of being called doctor and expected to know things/do things that we don't know or don't know how to do.  It's terrifying to say the least, but like most things, a necessary progression.  We are in this sort of golden time of knowing too much to be med students anymore but not knowing enough (or anywhere near enough) to be a doctor.  It's petrifying if you think too long about it, so I don't.  The idea of it is far more exciting, so I stick to that!

End of med school & Graduation
Things are moving right along in our lives - literally.  So tomorrow, May 4th, is my last day of school, as I said.  This makes me think of my good friend, Dawn, whom I recall having a conversation with about how fast time goes, I think around the time she was getting close to graduating from Law School.  She made the comment about how she couldn't believe it and how fast the time had gone and that before we knew it we'd be talking about me graduating from med school (at that point I hadn't even started med school yet).  I think we sort of laughed it off - that seemed pretty far away at that point, but yet, here we are.  It's pretty insane, actually.  One of those things where if you think about it M1 year seems like a long time ago, but overall the last 4 years have flown.  Literally flown.  Let's hope the next 4 go even faster.

So graduation itself is the evening of Friday, May 11th.  Our whole class has next week off, so I'm sure we will spend that doing things that soon-to-be doctors shouldn't be out doing, but lucky for us, it's finals week for everyone else, so we should be able to party it up downtown without many others being a party to our immaturity :)

House
We are closing on the house Friday, May 11th as well.  Closing is scheduled for 9:00AM, so we will have the keys by the time our parents make it to town.  Yay!  We are beyond excited to get into the house.  The bummer thing is that I have to do all the packing and cleaning around this house before the move can happen.  We are hopeful the next tenants at the rental house will want to get in early, so we can get out of even part of June's rent.  Otherwise, our lease here goes through June 27th.  The nice thing is it will give us more time to move, etc.  Brendan has very little time off in the next 6wks, so I'm doing the lion's share of all this packing/moving/unpacking/organizing, etc.  It's not his fault, just the way things fell.  Nonetheless, we'll see how cranky I am about it by the end.  Right now, we are hoping to move our big things on his weekend off, which is Memorial Weekend.  I'm hoping to have the boxes, etc, moved by then.  We shall see how that goes.

Fun stuff
So as I said, I have next week off.  Somehow it is already filling with activities!  I am heading to DSM to meet my good friend, Laura's new baby.  Then my good friend, Jaime, is coming (without her babies) to visit me in Iowa City Tuesday night/Wednesday.  I am very excited for both of those visits!  We will have the final walk through at our house on Thursday PM, then as I said, closing Friday.  I also have a reception/dinner Wednesday night for my Research Distinction Track.  Essentially means I completed a number of research-related requirements during med school, including writing a journal article, presenting my research, etc.  Maybe I mentioned this already, as it seems familiar.  As previously mentioned, I'm sure there will be some serious celebrating mixed in with all that, which I am game for.  Will be fun to have a few more weeks of partying with these friends before everyone heads their separate ways!

Ok, I better get going, I have some things to get done (like the aforementioned packing among other things!).  Hope everyone is having a good spring!  Congrats to my friends, Ashley, Ashley, & Laura on their new bundles of joys... it has been a busy baby month!  I can't wait to meet the little ones!!

Speaking of - pictures of my favorite "little ones"...