Finally Getting There

The past 24 weeks have felt like the longest 24 weeks of my life. Five days a week it's the same thing: get up earlier and earlier every day, get ready for school, hope to get a seat on the bus, arrive at school an hour early just to avoid the extremely full buses, sit in the classroom for nearly five hours and *hope* that we get to leave early, walk back to the bus stop with the hopes that I'll be able to catch the bus home without much wait time, go home and take a nap until it's time to do whatever I have to do after school. Monday is my only day I don't have to do anything after school. Tuesdays and Thursdays I have counseling after school and Wednesdays and Fridays I have Alumni group. Grrr so much stuff to do. But at the same time it's good to have plenty to do because idleness leads to depression. Of course, so does excess stress...

Six more weeks. Just six more. And then I go off to my externship. That's 30 days of full buses, hoping to get home early, doing all my after-school crap...And 12 days of blissful weekend time.

This six weeks is going to be the toughest of all. Not only do I have to keep up with my regular schoolwork, but I have to prepare and study for the certification exam and get all the documents I need to have to get my license and to go off to externship.

I was pretty nervous about externship. I knew where I wanted to go and my teacher said he'd try to get me in there. (Just a basic grocery store pharmacy.) But every time I go to my own pharmacy I see how hectic things can get and I just keep thinking maybe this isn't the career for me. It seems like a fast-paced, high-stress environment. Alas, this is what I chose to do and I need to follow through with it. I kept telling myself it would be okay. I wasn't so sure, though...

The other day my teacher came into class and asked me why I don't want to work in a hospital pharmacy. I told him that I don't do well in extra stressful environments and a hospital would be too stressful for me. He told me about a new pharmacy the school just got a contract with. It's a hospice pharmacy, sort of like a mail-order but they work only with hospice patients. He said it's the most calm and relaxed environment he's ever seen in the pharmacy field and that it's right down the street from me. He knows I take the bus, which is part of the reason he thought that would be good for me. They don't do IVs, which was another big reason I didn't want to go to a hospital--IVs scare me.

After hearing about this place, I really feel like this could be the right place for me. And now I'm excited and not so scared.