The end of an era

So I have finished my time at Auburn University and have moved from academia to true clinical practice. My last few days as an Auburn employee went by very quickly. I had so much to finish up and transition to other people. If I am honest with myself (and you my faithful readers) I am sad to leave. I am going to miss the students most of all. While I'll still have some interaction with the students on their clinical rotations, I won't have the level of interaction with the underclassmen. I do feel like I have made an impact on the students and hopefully they learned something from me (even if it's how they don't want to be!), but I guess you'd have to ask them. I could be delusional about my teaching ability. I am going to miss my colleagues and friends there as well, but I learned a lot. Not only about academia, but about myself as a clinician and educator. Also, it's the only job I've ever had in my professional career (not counting moonlighting and residency).

While I am sad to leave, I am hopeful for my future career with my clinic. I think I'll be able to make more of an impact on patient care in psychiatry and on pharmacy practice in the state. I guess I am trading my influence/impact on the students for more of a global influence/impact. I know this is the right move for because I got into psychiatric pharmacy to help patients and do the clinical work, not to teach. Teaching was just something that I enjoyed (and thought I was fairly good at, but you'd have to ask my students about that one.) I'll still be doing the clinical education, which is what I truly enjoy. I am excited to start my "new" job and see how I can excel there.

In other news, as I mentioned in my last blog post, a fallen tree destroyed a section of our fence. This time a tree fell in the woods and I may not have heard it, but I saw the damage. Anyone know a good fence repair person in my area? In addition, our air conditioning is fixed, but not fully so they are coming back to fix that as well.

We went to the Auburn game last weekend and it was a great game. I was glad I was there to witness it. I wasn't glad I got sunburned. Apparently, sunscreen was really needed. But now I have a nice tan going on, albeit a ridiculous farmers tan. Jen and I got to go because the in-laws watched the kids for us. It was a nice trip and we're doing it again in a week for the FAU game. I gotta use these faculty tix while I can still get them!

An update about the kids: Beka is loving school and she has started there full time. She now goes to school all week and there doesn't seem to be any end to how much she can learn. I guess this is a good thing, right? She is also in dance which she absolutely loves. She goes to Little Gym dance which is a little bit of dance and a little bit of gymnastics. If she likes the dance portion (which she seems to) we'll probably enroll her in a real dance class. Raymond is also growing more every day. He is so close to walking I think he can taste it. At least that's what I tell myself when he is trying to eat the furniture, toys, and people. More than likely he is teething, but I like to think he is just itching to walk and using his mouth for balance. I know it makes no sense, but whatever. He is also in the Little Gym, but he hasn't caught on yet that he can go away from mommy and daddy to play. He is still adjusting to be able to crawl around and play with anything in sight. Maybe he is overwhelmed, but I don't think so. Raymond is also eating a lot more real food. Well, he's always eaten real food; it's not like we've been feeding him pretend food, but I guess I mean people food. Not baby food. He seems to really like sweets, which I guess is no different from his daddy.

Anyway, I guess that's enough for the updates for now. Hopefully I'll have some more for you soon. I'll end with a question I was asked in clinic by a colleague: how many refills do you want on this Vyvanse prescription? My answer: well, just for this month, we'll won't give him any, just so we're in compliance with the law....