Just HAPPY!!!!

So I decided to unofficially start my fellowship on Monday even though I haven't officially cleared the background check yet, LOL!! And I spent most of the morning working on an assignment that was just a LOT of fun! The best categorization of the work I do in my current position is ChemInformatics and Pharmacogenomics which means that for the first time in my ENTIRE career, I'll use what I learned in MS programs in Chemistry and Pharmacology. Now how cool is that?!?!

Yesterday was the last day of the semester for me and I have NO words for how happy I am about that. Yes, I enjoyed the academic challenges this semester and my clinical healthcare course couldn't have come at a better time. But it's an understatement to say that it was EXHAUSTING!!!

Yesterday was also the day that I finally let my department know what my academic and professional plans are (MD/PhD) and I'm VERY happy to say that they are behind me 1000%!! I'd be the first MD/PhD student from the department so there's that. But the fact that a few of the faculty in my department (including the Anesthesiologist I shadowed last week) are so involved in the interface between Health Informatics and Medicine, it's a just great surprise to me that no one else had thought of this earlier. Incidentally, I saw that prof yesterday and had forgotten that he and the other prof for my class both direct the class and well as the newly formed residency in Clinical Informatics the med school. And that put into perspective all the questions he asked me when I was shadowing him about my short and long term academic goals. It also turns out that he's an acdom member, so I've longed since saw all these blessings in my life as a coincidence.

Of course, I thought the "problem" would be that the official MD/PhD program at my school doesn't "recognize" my department as an academic option which is why I considered jumping ship to a new one a few weeks ago. But I've been told that my joint program just needs to be "packaged" properly for special approval.

At any rate, it's an understatement to say that I'm happy about the way things are going ! :)