I found out that I was accepted into The Ohio State College of Optometry in the summer of 2019, and to say I was excited doesn’t begin to explain the joy, relief and eager anticipation I felt in that moment. During the last year of my undergraduate career at Ohio State, I would walk to class every day and pass the ongoing construction of the new optometry clinic, set to open 2020, the same year that I would start my optometric learning journey. Each day, I could see the continual progress on the building and understood the implication that it wouldn’t be long before I would be spending the next four years in those exam rooms. With a mindset of nervous optimism and continually looking forward at what was to come, it came as an especially significant surprise as to how quickly the last year of my undergraduate career went. In March of 2020, I hugged my roommates and friends goodbye for the spring break, unaware of the imminent pandemic and the implications it would have.

The life of quarantining and isolation that we quickly learned came to have a heavy impact on my first year of optometry school. Due to the nature of the pandemic, plans to live with my friends within walking distance of the school fell through, and I ended up moving in with my brother about a 25-minute drive away. I experienced my first year primarily through online lectures, and though the increased difficulty of classes was apparent, the biggest challenge came on a social level. I didn’t understand why I felt continuously drained, anxious and disconnected, and my response was just to study more. By the time the first year had ended, I looked back and realized my mistake in failing to reach out, to join clubs, to initiate conversation, and COVID-19, of course, had not helped.

Going into my second year, I was motivated to make sure I became more involved. I took on more leadership in Ocular Disease Club, joined other clubs like Low Vision and College of Optometrists in Vision Development and moved into a house with some of the closest friends I had made in optometry school thus far. I soon began to find my place within the Ohio State Optometry student base, and suddenly my journey began to feel less like an isolated one and one more within a community. My mental health had greatly improved, and I soon felt my physical health do so as well. Hobbies such as running, cooking and playing basketball that I had not done at all in my first year reemerged in the second. Academically, I gained a new sense of understanding as I began to engage more in group studying and found enjoyment communicating and comparing our biggest takeaways from each lecture and clinic session with friends. I felt as though my optimism for the material and curiosity to learn had only grown.

 

Although I don’t regret the eager anticipation I had on those undergrad walks passing the clinic, I do wish I had placed a bit more time into understanding why I was in such a position in the first place. I had made sure that my undergraduate career was not a journey I took alone, but instead surrounded by those who wanted to see me succeed. Optometry school is certainly challenging, but is without a doubt rewarding as well, especially when it is a process that can be shared with others. The importance in having a support system, friends and family who can go through the process with you, riding the highs and helping to lift you from the lows, cannot be overstated.