MeSoFun Blog

I couldn't find any images for Jimmie Howser, PA-C. Nobody asked, but since a blog with advice to the PA Class of 2012 is so well received, I thought I'd follow up with a word to the spouses, significant others and families of future PA students. You have no idea what you're getting into. You nod. Yeah, right. It's going to be tough. You get that. But it won't be that bad. It can't be. Oh, it can. There's a reason nobody ever tells you specifically why PA school is going to suck. For the students, school is like the baby alien from Aliens. It's going to find your weak point and it's going to come popping out. How are you at eating and exercising well while under stress? Pretty good? How about getting enough sleep when you have a billion pages of reading to do? OK at that? How about calling your family and friends when you're 100 percent busy? BAM. Weak spot. Every student's soft spot is different. I won't get into TW's, other than to...

Cambridge, Massachusetts, is a historic old settlement, just across the Charles River from Boston. It's basically right across from Fenway. It's the home to Supreme Court Justin Stephen Breyer and a little school called Harvard. Another technical college, MIT, is along the shore of the Charles in Cambridge. If you're into this kind of thing. And, for the next five weeks or so, it's the home to one TW. After a sometimes-rocky, sometimes-nice two-plus weeks off, TW is back in school. Kind of. She's at Cambridge Hospital. Here's a map for you that probably won't work. She's about a mile from Harvard Square and the subway line that will help bring her back to Maine on weekends. She's about a half mile from Whole Foods. Eclectic shops and restaurants are everywhere. This doesn't sound like prime TW territory. It's new. It's foreign. It's something she's never experienced. Admittedly, her first day in Cambridge (yesterday) did not get ...