Growing up my mom always demanded that she take my brothers and I to school on the first day instead of us riding the bus so that she could take our pictures. When we were younger this wasn’t such a big deal, but once high school rolled around I was pretty embarrassed about it. She kept telling us that we’d appreciate it, and deep down I knew she was right, but it didn’t seem worth it at the time. Of course, now I am glad that we will have those pictures to look back on, and sometime soon I hope to dig them out of her photo box. I let the tradition lapse for awhile in college, but today as I was getting ready to leave for what might possibly the last first day of school that I will ever have, I decided to bring it back. The picture isn’t quite the same since it’s in my room and not at school, but hey, I tried.

I am taking two clinical courses this semester: OB and pediatrics. Today and all this week we have OB classes. I am excited about this semester because a) I am ready to get back to some actual clinical work after a semester of psych, and b) I love babies, and I want to find out whether I would like to work in this area full-time. I enjoyed class today, so that’s a good sign.

Although we did watch a video in which a doctor examined many specimens of placenta, while my friend Lauren next to me tried not to gag. She doesn’t want to be an OB nurse.

Oh, and my professor did say this: “I have a recipe for placenta stew.”