Speaker 1: Welcome to Almost Dr. Armas. If you're new to this channel, thank you for checking it out and if you're already a subscriber, thank you for being back again. My name is Arielle and I'm a PhD student in clinical psychology. In this YouTube channel, I talk about my life as a grad student and bring you information about the mental health field. Today I'm doing a recap because I'm really excited to say that after 11 weeks, 8 classes, a lot of exams and a ridiculous amount of reading, I finally survived my first quarter of the PhD program in clinical psychology. If you've been following me since the beginning when I started graduate school in September, then you know that the first month or two was a really big adjustment period and then in general things picked up around the middle of the quarter and then got really crazy towards the end for finals week and I did a separate video about that. So as I've said in previous videos, graduate school, at least this first quarter, was just all about balancing, knowing what to spend my time on, and I've said this over and over again in all of my recap videos. And so now I'm able to talk about what it's like now that I made it through. And after I finished my last final exam, I felt so proud and so happy to have made it because I think everybody who's in graduate school worked really, really, really, really hard to get in and you jump in and you put your blood, sweat, and tears into the quarter and while you're in it you don't think about how hard you worked or how proud you are of yourself until now. And so I remember just feeling this overwhelming sense of pride once I finished the last exam and submitted the last paper, like I really did it. And I hope that every quarter is like that because it makes it feel all worth it. And it was by no means easy these past few months. There was a lot of times where I felt super stressed and then there were other times where I felt like things were relaxed. And I feel like no matter what your grades were or how stressed you were throughout the quarter, I feel like getting to the end was just relief for everyone. And I honestly didn't know what to do with myself afterwards. So the first day of winter break, I was like, okay, now what? And I don't think I'm the only one. Some of my friends also felt the same way because our lives have been completely consumed by this degree for the past 11 weeks. I also think if you knew for a while, like me, that you wanted to be in this field, then pretty much every big thing in your life led up to this point. And so you just, you're all in and you're not thinking about anything else because you're so focused. And so you get to the end and you're like, Who even am I other than a student? And so that's why I think that over the break I'm really trying to spend time with my friends, with my family, by myself, relaxing and doing different forms of self-care for myself because it's gonna be another 11 weeks straight through like that all over again really soon. And so I'll do another video at some point about what I've learned or what was unexpected about grad school, but in general, I feel like one of the main takeaways that I've gotten is when you have time off to take advantage of it because now I feel like it's time to rejuvenate and refresh my mind and give myself a break and do things that have nothing to do with school, finally. And if you think about it, our quarter system is pretty short. 11 weeks is a lot all at once, whereas people who are in a semester system have a longer bit of classes. So it felt really fast. When I look back, I feel like the 11 weeks went by super quickly. But when you're in the thick of it, every day feels so long and you're doing so much work. So I think this first quarter, now I'm adjusted, now I know what school's like, now I know what the classes are like, I know what it's like to sit through a three hour lecture, I know what kind of papers are expected of me, and every instructor's different, so you can never be completely prepared for what's ahead, but I feel like now I've done it once, and so the next couple of quarters are gonna be easier, and I know what adjustments to make. I feel that in the first quarter, there are a couple of weeks where it's really relaxed, and I'm like, oh, I don't have to do much. And then it picks up and gets really crazy and I'm like super overwhelmed. So now I know to spread things out. So I just really think that besides the fact that I was in class, overall it was a learning experience for me as a student to make adjustments from being an undergrad and then being somebody in the workforce to being a graduate student. So that being said, I'm really excited for the next quarter. I'm excited to do things a little bit differently and hopefully perform better. I just feel so relieved to be done. And I feel like regardless of the grades I get, I tried my absolute best and it's been a lot of fun. I just really feel fortunate to be in this position. So I plan to enjoy the break and hopefully prepare a couple of videos for you guys. If you've been following this journey from the beginning, I really appreciate you and if you're just finding me now, then welcome to the journey. The cool thing about doing these videos for you is that I'm sharing with you what I'm learning as I'm learning it. And that means that whatever I'm excited about learning in class, I'll be excited to share with you guys and hopefully it informs you and you can share it with people that you know. If you're also a graduate student and you just made it through your first quarter or any quarter or semester, congratulations. We did it and I really look forward to sharing the rest of this journey with you guys. Again, I'm almost Dr. Armas. My goal is to inform you, to inspire you, to spark an interest in you, and hopefully also entertain you. Thank you for watching this video and I hope you'll check back in next time.