We're All In This Together

Today, or I guess right now as I write, Josh is off taking his final for Term 3.  Another term almost over and done with.  I just can't believe how quickly things are moving along in medical school.  At this time last year, we were just arriving in Newcastle.  Brand new term 1ers with NO IDEA what we were getting ourselves into.  WE I was nervous and scared about living in a foreign country and extremely unsure of how this whole medical school thing was going to work out.  Would I ever make friends?  Would I ever understand SGU's schedule?  Well, the answers to those questions are yes...and yes.  And now I find myself in the position to help other's, like us, who were brand new to this experience and needed a helping hand. 

In the past two days, I have taken mulitple newby's to the grocery store, helped pick up lost luggage at the airport, viewed an apartment for someone coming in January, and tried to answer any and all questions as best I can for people who are here and are as scared and nervous as I was last August.  I'm not trying to pat my own back here, I'm just trying to point out the importance of helping out others, people who are strangers, in this process. It is intimidating to say the very least.  We had sooo much help from our friends when moving to Grenada because we knew people who were ahead of us in Newcastle.  But when we moved to Newcastle, we were alone.  Yes, we figured things out, but it was hard and I wish someone could have been there for me, to answer my questions, and help me with my concerns.  Someone to tell me, "It's okay to be freaking out! I was too!"

So I will continue to offer my help to any new students or SO's that I meet, even if they don't ask for it.  And my hope is that when the next term rolls around and new students and SO's are piling off the planes in Grenada, that those that I helped will pay it forward and help somebody else.  I may at moments feel like I've spread myself a little too thin, but it makes such an enormous difference to those that you give help to.

I sometimes don't know how different people come across my blog, but if anyone sees this, and is a new student or SO coming to SGU now, or in the future, please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns that you have about Newcastle, Grenada, or medical school in general.  I will try to answer you as best I can because afterall, we're all in this together.