A day in the life of a radical pharmacy owner

This week J and I were so fortunate to attend Cirque Du Soleil Delerium. We had an awesome time thanks to the generosity of friends. I have heard some people complain because the show is very different from other shows they have done. This was my first time attending so I was not expecting anything in particular. It was amazing. I would like to meet the people who envisioned the show and then created it. They used screens and sheer curtains to project images on. The visual media was incredible. The performers sang, danced, and performed acrobatics while different images were used. I would have never thought to bring all those elements together to create a show. Check it out if you can.

I had some interesting insight today about my time in pharmacy school. I got a call from a former classmate. He was sanctioned by the pharmacy school during our third year for academic dishonesty. He came to me and my best friend and asked us to write letters about his character. We both did. I honestly do not know if he ever cheated, but he never cheated off of me. He is from another country and struggled constantly. He was often the last person left working on a test or a lab. He asked many questions in lab and other students felt like he was copying their work. I decided to write the letter because I felt like it was case of racism. There were several students who were suspected of academic dishonesty. He was the only one targeted by the Dean's office. He was the only one who other student "spied" on. We all knew of at least 3-4 students that cheated regularly. The only student that was punished was from Africa and had trouble with English. I am not saying the college or the Dean's office was overtly racist. I think he was a target because the administration was frustrated with all of the cheating that was occurring. This guy was the only one that they could get other students to rat out. So, I wrote a letter stating that I believed that he had a language barrier. I stated that he had asked for my help on several occasions, but had never used my work.

He was sanctioned and told that he could come back in 2 years if he worked on his language, continued to work in pharmacy, and did volunteer work. He told me that after the two years were up, they told him that he would have reapply for the college. They denied him re-admittance. He appealed it to the university and the sanction was overturned. He is not sure what this means to returning to school. He does not want to return to school at that school.

Back to the insight, I realized that my involvement in that issue may have been a contributing factor to why I did not get the residency I applied for. I applied for a residency at the VA. Not only did I not get it, they picked a much weaker candidate who stated after he was chosen that he applied for that residency because it was going to be "easy". Then I started thinking about my over all experience in pharmacy school. The first year, I argued with my fellow students about ethical issues like end-of-life decisions and confidentiality of HIV status. The second year I became vice president of a large student organization. The third year I became president. While I was president, I tried to change the advisor for the organization because our long standing advisor did nothing for us. I tried to hold people who traveled on the organization's money accountable by participating in the conference programs. I worked hard and actively criticized students in leadership positions who did not do their jobs. Basically, I was a pain in the ass. It was not my intention to be difficult, but I always speak up for what I believe in. It never occurred to me then that my actions could have such far reaching consquences. I am sure I would have loved the residency and would be enjoying the job that I got afterwards. That being said, I would not trade in my current situation for anything else.