Seven Years Down, ZERO To Go!!!!

As I rode home from my last day of rotation EVER, which just so happened to be a mental health rotation, I couldn't help but think this must be what a manic episode feels like because if I were any happier I would bust. I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS IS MY LAST DAY OF PHARMACY SCHOOL! Now talk to me in a few weeks and I'll probably be able to tell you what a major depressive episode feels like after studying for my board exam all day every day. (I apologize for the medical humor...I am sure it isn't funny to anyone who hasn't experienced the torture of pharmacy school)
People frequently ask me, "Doesn't it feel like yesterday you were going off to pharmacy school?" I immediately respond, "NO! I felt like it would never end!" It feels like I have been in school all of my life when I think about all of the studying, presentations, and projects over the last 7 years not even counting my 12 years of elementary/MS/HS and my 3 years of Pre-K/Kindergarten (which if you do the math: 24 years old - 22 years of school...so yeah it basically is all of my life).
However, I do remember the day I was accepted to pharmacy school like it was yesterday. I remember my first day of pharmacy school like it was yesterday. I remember my very first test in pharmacy school like it was yesterday (including the panic attack from being stuck in traffic and being 20 minutes late afraid the instructor was going to lock the door at beginning of testing and give me a big fat ZERO...which she did not). I remember my first therapeutics test like it was yesterday (getting up at 4am to review my notes one more time even though I could almost recite them from memory...and the irony of feeling my heart beating outside my chest while sitting in the room waiting to take a test on cardiology.) When reminiscing about the details, it does seem like time has flown by but certainly not quick enough that I would jump at a chance for more school any time soon.
Thank you to everyone who has supported and encouraged me in this endeavor. I am sure that I could not have achieved this without you. Thank you to my sweet roommates in undergrad who encouraged me and prayed for me during tests and understood that I didn't hate them just because I was in the library more than I was in the living room with them. Thank you to my friends in pharmacy school who gave advice and encouragement. Thank you to my family (immediate and extended) who prayed for me and encouraged me. Thank you to my parents who prayed, supported, and encouraged me through it all and listened to me and believed in me...words can't express my gratitude. Thank you to my precious husband who I don't think knew what he was getting into when he married me before pharmacy school. He was so understanding every day. He understood when I had to go to the library to study for a whole weekend. He wore headphones to watch tv in our little apartment after the library closed so it would be quiet for me. He drove on all our road trips so I could read my therapeutics notes in the car. He knew when I had reached my stress level and didn't need to be sitting in front of the books anymore and he would go get me a Bruster's chocolate raspberry truffle waffle cone to give me a study break. Looking back I know I couldn't have made it through without all of you, so THANK YOU!