Grocery Day

Today I went grocery shopping.. at three different markets with Jennifer and Michelle. We started at 1:30 and got back at 6 pm. I thought I was done for the day and proceeded to iron my clothes, until I remembered that I had an ER rotation at Broward General in Ft. Lauderdale (4 min away) at 6:30 pm. I went, say nothing until about 10:30 pm when an elderly man with multiple stab wounds came in. Very educational.

Went to Denny's and shared brinner with Adam and came home to write in this.

Good day.

Modesty

Nothing lasts forever; how tragically beautiful it is that we may live as if tomorrow could take the love and fortunes of today.

Hold dearly to the things that matter most and cast aside those that do not.

Live with kindness and generosity; be honest and loyal to those around you but remain firm to your principles and goals.

I am so thankful to be where I am right now, to have the friends that I have, to be on the road to something amazing. Thank you so much.

V 

AMA Conference - New Orleans

One of the events I was most looking forward to in coming to medical school was attending one of the AMA conferences Ross was telling me about over the time he was involved with AMA-FMA during his first and second years. Ross had always been interested in politics and found the AMA-FMA Medical Student Section to be a way where he could fulfill two of his greatest interest by helping to influence medicine and politics.

I’d have to thank Ross for introducing me to such as notable organization – there are many opportunities for networking and having an impact in medicine! We left for our trip to New Orleans, the setting for this year’s Interim Conference, on Thursday at 3 pm. Before I get into details of how the trip went, perhaps explaining how badly the trip was organized could put things into more perspective.

-          The conference began on Thursday morning/afternoon which contained introductions and important orientation information – we got to New Orleans at 1 am Louisiana time (Mountain time?).

-          FIU is right next to Miami International Airport – For some reason we had our flight booked at Ft. Lauderdale International Airport, costing us more money and time to get back home

-          Our flight had two stops, the first to HOUSTON, TEXAS and then onward to NOLA.

-          They booked our hotel in Baton Rouge, rather than in the same town as the conference like every other school.

o   In addition to this, they expected us to use a taxi every time we needed to travel somewhere.

§  The most unrealistic aspect of the trip by far

§  Logically, we decided as a group to get a rental car instead, this proved to be vital.

All complaints aside, as I said before, we arrived at our hotel in Baton Rouge at 1 am in the morning and had our two hotel rooms. Those who came to the conference were:

-          Myself (Vice Chair)

-          Gabriel Sanchez (Chair)

-          Lynn Zaremski (Secretary)

-          Chris Plecia (AMA Delegate)

-          Tim Lu (Interested Student)

-          David Weithorn (Interested Student)

-          Neeva Bose (Former Chair)

The first day of the conference was exciting although a little boring at the same time. In the morning, I went with Chris to the main ballroom to listen to the different resolutions brought up and presented by difference medical schools all across the country. Chris and I sat at the Florida tables (which by far was the most represented state, thanks to UF and USF bringing over 100 people in total), and upon coincidence I found myself sat next to my old friend, Ross. The meeting was in full swing so we didn’t spend too much time talking; however it was a breath a fresh air for me to see a familiar face. Afterwards, presentations were taking place all over the conference; all of us in our professional attire attended those presentations we felt were the most interesting.

The day, for the most part, was done by 6 pm; from 10:30 am to 1:30 pm we went as a group to get to know New Orleans. The city was