Life After LLU
If I had to sum up graduation weekend in one word, I would say that it was bittersweet. I enjoyed all the perks that come with graduating: family visiting from afar, the various parties and celebrations, the feeling of accomplishment that you get when your name gets called as you walk across the stage to pick up your diploma. At the same time, it was sentimental knowing that after that weekend, all my friends would be scattered in different areas, as some of us pursued residencies or job opportunities.
For my summer, the month of June was very busy. I went to four different graduation ceremonies (all on different days), went on a family trip to Portland, Oregon and spent a few days at the happiest place on earth—Disneyland. ☺
Prior to starting college, I went on a few cross-country road trips with my friends and family and we stopped at various places in the U.S. such as Zion national park, Mount Rushmore, and Yosemite National Park. Internationally, some places I have traveled to include various islands in the Philippines, Honduras, Romania and Spain. Some places on my travel-planning “bucket list” include Thailand, England, Paris and Italy.
For the rest of my summer, my plans involve a lot of studying for the boards, which are the same plans that the rest of my classmates probably have. I also started my PGY1 residency in ambulatory care pharmacy at WeCare Pharmacy, which focuses on managing and educating patients who have diabetes or hyperlipidemia. I am very excited for the residency as it involves an area of pharmacy that I am interested.
At the end of last school year I scheduled my community pharmacy rotation for my last APPE block, which worked out well because it wasn’t too intensive of a rotation. After Block 6, all the 4th year students had reconnections, a time in which we come together as a class for one last time. I loved seeing all my classmates and faculty again, and it reminded me of one of the reasons I loved going to pharmacy school at LLU—because of the wonderful people there. I genuinely miss all my amazing classmates, and I hope that they are all doing well in whatever endeavor their lives post-pharmacy school has taken them.
In my opinion, the last school year of pharmacy school is a year of a lot of self-discovery. Through rotations and the networking events that the Experiential department, you can really learn a lot about what areas of pharmacy you like or don’t like, and you learn a lot about yourself with regards to your own strengths and weaknesses. That was one of my favorite things about the last school year, the process of self-discovery.
I learned some important things while at Loma Linda:
When working with patients, it’s important to consider “wholeness” and get a cohesive look at the person as a whole.
When pharmacy school or life in general gets hard, don’t forget to take care of yourself physically and mentally.
Wherever you go in life, whatever you do, wherever life takes you, do it with 100% commitment and compassion.
Loma Linda University School of Pharmacy Student Blog 