 people strong oh my gosh I cannot humble I'm so excited and so I figured you know there's a thousand of you guys who have decided to subscribe to my channel and some of you guys don't really know anything about me so let's do a get to know me tag 30 I'm 31 31 I'm gonna forget you guys like birthdays just run together after about 28 and so I'm 31 I just turned 31 this year and yeah that's me started studying medicine I I don't know like well technically in undergrad yeah technically I was more so like a pre-med major I was biomedical sciences with an emphasis in pre-med because I originally wanted to be an OBGYN but that's when I started taking my pre-wax what is that I started taking my prerequisite courses in undergrad and I was in kind of like an expanded science and math program where I was able to take a heavier load freshman and sophomore year and literally I think I had maybe like one class my second semester of senior year so it worked out pretty well so I chose medicine because I just loved the field I it was either medicine or being a lawyer and I don't know if that was kind of just ingrained in me because I'm from the islands and like you're only making something you're only living life if you're either a lawyer or a doctor so I don't know if that was just kind of the thought that was ingrained in my head but those I literally gravitated to those two fields because I liked to argue slash like prove a point and then I also like to help people but I ultimately settled on medicine because my sister actually had an experience where she was helped tremendously by her physicians and I liked the research aspect of it and that kind of just pointed me towards the medical field so I think about maybe sophomore year of high school is when I really decided that I wanted to be in medicine um so I came up with my username because it's me I'm Adana and I'm going to be a PA so it's literally I just wanted to do something that was simple and it was gonna talk about specifically what you were gonna be seeing on my channel which was stuff about me becoming a PA so it was really simple not a hard decision at all and that's really can we just kind of was like okay your name's Adana and you want to be a PA so the channel is gonna be called Adana the PA so my channel is a channel literally about me and what I have experienced so far trying to get into PA school being in PA school and then it will transition to now me being out of PA school and probably being in my doctoral program and then into the field it's literally just the journey of Adana into PA hood so you're gonna get tidbits of information that I wish I had when I was applying to school because I was doing a lot of research for different information that I could get on you know great interview tips and you know how to get really good healthcare hours and what constitutes a healthcare hour what constitutes a great application and I couldn't really find information about that when I was applying to PA school and I couldn't find people that look like me you know like that I couldn't really talk to about PA school so I was like I want to do that for somebody else because I wish that I had this when I was applying to PA school and so that's what my channel is my channel is about me being in PA school and giving you guys the ins and outs of PA school that I wish I had while also giving you guys an insight into my life now as a mom wife PA student trying to navigate this whole PA school life favorite quote what is my favorite quote um so I don't even know what my favorite quote is I guess but there is a quote that I have been quoting a lot lately and I really like it it's been kind of like holding on to me because PA school is hard you guys it's not easy but you have to stick through it so this this quote which it's by Eric Thomas and he says it's like a little snippet but he says when you want to breathe no look at me he says when you want to succeed as much as you want to breathe so basically I mean what it's saying is that if you're trying to succeed as much as you want to breathe because there's not a moment like if you're drowning you want to breathe so badly and that's kind of the image that it has with that quote has somebody kind of trying to get up for air and if you want to if you're drowning you want to breathe so badly you're gonna do anything you're gonna fight you're gonna grind to get up above water to actually breathe and that's the same thing that you need to do when you're trying to succeed in life and that is what I'm trying to do so I'm gonna be scraping I'm gonna be losing sleep I'm gonna be waking up really early in the morning but I have to there are things that I have to do I have to sacrifice because I want to succeed at this thing called being a PA so that's really what I've been holding on to these past few I think months or so just in the last couple months I've kind of been quoting that a lot my best memory in PA school so far has been my white coat ceremony you guys oh my gosh that was so amazing um although not all of my family could be there because my mom was in Trinidad sad times you guys my mom didn't see me walk across the stage um to get my white coat but I did videotape it and um if you guys haven't seen that video go ahead and check that out I'll leave a link for it where you can see me getting my white coat um but I videotaped it and she was able to see that and she said she was very proud but that literally was like my best moment so far um it came right after we finished our first semester of PA school such a hard semester um and that white coat ceremony was just like here you go you've done it you have made it through this first semester you can do this it was just kind of like validation that you can be a PA and you can be an amazing PA and you're going to be an amazing PA here's your white coat so that literally was my favorite experience thus far in PA school getting my short white coat so one course that I've struggled with in PA school was actually physical diagnosis um you know I really didn't think that it was going to be like a course where I'm like oh man like I really have to like study hard for this I thought my medical practice course where it teaches you everything about the different disease process like the pathogen you know epidemiology and those different things that you're going to need to know and how to treat the particular disease um I thought that was going to be my hardest course but um it didn't it's actually it was actually like the course that I did the best in um but the physical diagnosis course where it's talking about like what are the physical characteristics or the symptoms that these patients are going to show up with which is very important um has actually been the course that I've had to put the most work in and it's still a course that I have to put a lot of work in and it will probably be another course again because I'll have to take it again next semester um that I'll have to put a lot of work in but it's essential for becoming a PA and being a PA because not only do you need to know um how to take a good HPI but you also need to know like what are the physical physical signs that these patients are going to come in with what are they going to look like you know what is the lesion going to look like for a basal cell carcinoma or a squamous cell carcinoma so things like that and you know I appreciate it you have to struggle so I appreciate the struggle I'd appreciate a lot less of it but I'd appreciate the struggle what is my favorite book okay so I'm gonna answer this for like I'm gonna answer my favorite book for life and then I'm gonna answer my favorite book for school so my favorite book for life is the bible okay like I love the bible um it helps me out so much it keeps me grounded I love the scripture I read it every day and um it really motivates me and it um just helps me make it through my day I don't know how I would do it if I wasn't like having devotion every morning um and then going to church every weekend I really would I don't know I don't know how to make it in this this whole PA thing but that is my favorite book for life so if you don't own one go get one um but for school where is my book money you guys this is my favorite book what is this book called it is called pants prep pearls this is my favorite book you guys for PA school um it's amazing if you don't have one and you are in PA school you're missing out you need to go get one um if you don't have one and you're trying to get in PA school you're missing out you need to go get one because it really helps you just kind of condense everything down um I know it's gonna be my best friend when I'm trying to take the pants um and it's my best friend right now as I go through PA school because it really helps you to just kind of get the pearls hence the name pants prep pearls um that's you need when trying to figure out what disease is going on in your patient so that is my favorite book pants prep pearls by duane a williams go get yours today at barns and ovals well I don't know if it's at barns and ovals but go get yours today sleep no I I try to sleep but in my free time I spend as much time with my family as I possibly can so we go to church we you know go for a little drives here and there we'll go to read us um take the kids to the park but just trying to decompress and make sure that I'm able to spend time with my family um as much as I possibly can because I'm in school over eight I'm just in school learning eight hours a day and then even after school I stay back and I study for another two hours or so um you know three hours depending on if we have an exam a really hard exam so it's hard but you I I have to make the time for my family and so any free time that I get I spend with them because you know they're going through this experience with me and I can get disenchanted because I am in school all day um so I can easily kind of just start going through the motions and I don't want to I don't want to do that so I want to make sure that they understand and they know that I'm still here for them I'm still mom I'm still wife still don't my wife flee and mom duties um and um and that's and and this is all for them basically but that's what I do in my free time I spend time with my family so what do I want to specialize in I don't know um I spend a lot of time shadowing surgical PAs and I really like that um at Holy Cross it was really a great experience they had like a surgical they had like a surgical unit and they just had a unit of PAs that would go in and they would assist on different surgeries and I like that I like that I could go from seeing you know an amputation to a hysterectomy to a salp a salp injectomy or you know whatever it is all in a matter of a week you know um it was different it varied from day to day my experience and I like that so uh I really like the model that they had but I don't know if that's a model that is everywhere so I don't want to feel like slighted like I'm going in I'm like yeah I want to be a surgical PA because it's everything I'm gonna be able to see everything but then I'm only stuck in one aspect of surgery um so I don't know I think maybe I might start off in like the ED or primary care just so that I'm able to see a lot and just get that general basis and foundation and then um I don't know where I would go next but I'm excited to see and I will figure all of that out when I start my rotations next year so excited you guys uh two more semesters until that happens but we're really excited about that um but get at me then and get at me in like a year from today and we'll do another one of these and maybe I might have a better idea of what I want to um specialize in initially why look up to I don't know that's kind of tough like like let me just I'll just say I really look up to my husband like he is a fighter you know like I appreciate his drive and his grind like that kind of helped me stay motivated because it was it was easy like I wasn't in school for a long time I was I I had to do like the supporting for a long while and it's easy to kind of give up on your goals your desires because you don't see um how God is moving in your life or you don't see things happening in the time period that you want it to happen in so um it was it's easy to kind of just lose hope and lose faith in that but like my babe like he I don't know he was he's been trying to do like you know acting and filmmaking and stuff for a little minute and then he was like he just kept doing like he don't care you know like if he'll do something and then uh he'll put out there and then he'll keep moving he's not waiting for somebody to say yes he's going and making his own path and I really appreciate that and I admire that and that's something that I kind of um tried to model myself in life just not sitting up here trying to wait for somebody to tell me yes just putting out what I need to and then moving on in faith on the next project while God works that out I'm leaving God I'm leaving that up for God to work out and then I'll keep moving and if he wants me to handle that or if he wants that to come my way it'll come my way so I'm gonna go with my babe I'll look up to my babe good old aunt I'll see you record and you know don't be a thing study productively um you take a lot of great notes get a lot of highlighters colorful highlighters colorful pens um and highlight things different colors you know because the different colors will mean different things um the pens help like I love colorful pens I write a lot of things in different colors because it just pops and it makes me focus on something a lot more than just the plain black and blue but um I take notes um I think I take really good notes but I make the notes personal to me you know that I will understand and things that I feel are super important I'll bold them and highlight them um in my notes and then when I print them out I'll highlight them in the color and star them but it's really just making sure that you're getting the key points because there's so much information and you can get really inundated with all of this information and just want to know all of the information but then it kind of just overwhelms you and that's not good so rather than getting overwhelmed with all of the information that is being thrown at me I try to compartmentalize I'll if I know I have um a patho exam on Wednesday I'll study for that on Monday and Tuesday um really really hard on Tuesday but let's say I had a med practice exam on Monday I will study for med practice over the weekend and I'm not studying necessarily for patho because I know med practice is coming first so it's really about managing your time understanding what is more important important at that moment in time studying for that um making sure that you're using your time productively and then moving on but that's really I feel like how I'm productive in my studying um and I'll split my time up as well with respect to group study and self study because group study is very helpful when you kind of know the information and you're just kind of bounce things off of your peers and make sure that you guys are on the you know you're on the right path um but group study can be very detrimental um if you aren't sure about the information that you were studying because people can confuse you so manage your time very well and that's really how I study productively how do I stay motivated in PA school um I look at the end goal you guys like at the end of this I want to be a great practitioner I want to be out there in the clinical realm just helping people and um I I just remember where I was like five months ago you know I remember what I was doing um where I was working you know the hours I was working what I was thinking when I saw physicians and PAs and NPs and nurses and their careers um loving what they're doing and me kind of not being happy where I was at um and and longing for this and that's really what keeps me motivated because I don't want to go back to where I was I I want to push forward and the fact that I've been blessed to be in this position to actually become a PA I can't squander that opportunity I can't take it for granted and so I literally think about this all the time I'm still on a high that I was able to get into PA school and um it's crazy again that I've been in PA school for almost half a year that's mind-boggling um but I'm excited and I understand the magnitude of this opportunity I understand how great of um a chance that I have and an opportunity that I have right now that a lot of people wanted and did not attain this year and so I I stay motivated I stay motivated because I am I am living my dream right now so I'm living my my dream path I'm on my way so I can't there is no way there's nothing but motivation even in those tough days you're like would you rather be sitting at a desk you know working and getting you know registering people to come into the clinic nah I'd rather be here crying because I have an ortho exam that is going to be a beast I'd rather be doing that my best tips for future PA's um my best tips for future PA's is to do your research I always say this to you guys do your research um research what schools you want to go to what areas you want to be in um kind of do some self-research as well look at yourself and see like your personality and where you will thrive and then apply to schools in those areas shadow lots of PA's look at the profession understand the the profession that you're trying to get into and the changes that are being made in the profession because they will affect how you're able to practice in the future um and also just stay motivated look at the end goal yes school may be hard right now but PA school is not easy so get used to it right you know stay motivated work hard and and do what you need to do to get to where you want to go um and that's really like the best tips that I could possibly give you have a great support system stay motivated do your research and you're golden you got this I have two kids two little girls two little girly girls and a husband and a puppy time my little dog kiki and um I love them dearly it is not necessarily always easy having a family um in PA school because you have to know how to balance your time but I do it because I love them and I love this profession and I wouldn't have it any other way all right you guys so thank you guys so much for watching hopefully you guys got to know me a little bit better and hopefully some of the things that I said in this was helpful to any future PA's out there um if you have any questions for me that you want me to answer I can probably do another one of these in the near future um and we could probably do it live you know so leave those comments in the leave those questions in the comment section below and um depending on how many we get and uh how soon we get them we might be able to do another one of these just a quick Q&A not even necessarily a get to know me but a Q&A session with Adana so leave those in the comment section below and um I'll be sure to get back to them okay also thank you guys again I am so happy I'm so grateful you guys like I don't you guys look at my cheeks my cheeks are like hi and they're hurting right now because I'm just smiling because I'm really really humbled and really grateful for the fact that over a thousand of you have subscribed and decided to join me on this journey so thank you guys so much for that um this is for you hopefully you guys really appreciate it and um thank you guys for watching and subscribing um if you haven't already done so and you are currently watching this go ahead and subscribe um and join me on this journey and go ahead and hit up my instagram because I do have an instagram you guys so go ahead and follow me on instagram and thank you again uh really appreciate you guys I will talk to you guys next week bring you guys some more videos and um we're having fun we're having a blast on this journey right so let's do this all right you guys I will talk to you guys later bye