I am sooo happy today is over with. Nothing better than getting your first big presentation over with!
Today I had my clinical pathology presentation with a group of 4 other students. I started working on my part of the project a couple of weeks ago (before my professor switched the deadline) so it was definitely nice to get it over with so I never have to see it again.
You know what? You’d think by the time you get to PT school everybody would be on top of their ish. Not true. I’ve had to be the go-to person for both the clin path and biomechanics projects. I set meeting times, communicate with the teachers, help everybody with their parts, put everybody’s slides together…blah blah blah.
I thought that everybody in PT school would be the kind of person I was in undergrad. I thought we’d all be taking charge. Nobody in either group has been a problem, it’s just that nobody has really taken the lead on things besides me. It’s fine, I guess. I don’t slack off and I like presentations to be presented well. Although I can be a bit of a procrastinator, I ALWAYS stay on top of my stuff for group projects. To me, a group is only as strong as its weakest link, so it’s important to not let yourself fall behind.
I was beginning to feel a little bad about being in charge of everything. I didn’t want to come off as too bossy, but I also needed to make sure things got done. I felt better once my friend told me that the group she was in didn’t have anybody taking the lead so they all just sat around doing nothing. I also heard that one group had a guy who said he couldn’t meet with them on Sunday because that was his day to watch football. I would have flipped out!
One girl in my clin path group thanked me for doing everything, which was very nice. I don’t think people ever realize how much a group leader really does. They don’t just stress out about their own part, they’re stressed out about everybody’s parts. If a presentation fails to do what it was supposed to, I feel like it’s my fault. It’s definitely not fair for me to do this, but if I’m piecing the whole thing together, I feel like it’s my obligation to catch every little mistake or blip in the presentation.
So aside from all of that, today went well. I was definitely nervous but I rocked my part of the presentation. The whole group did very well. There was only one thing that bothered me a bit which was that one of the girls in our group didn’t elaborate on a study that we specifically told her to go into more detail on or to just take the whole thing out altogether. I had to fight from cringing as I watched her blow through the study without even tying it in to the disease we were talking about. What’s worse is that I had told her the day before to take the slide out for timing purposes, but she didn’t since she said she wouldn’t have at least 3 minutes of material for her part. Well, she took FIVE minutes today which left me 3 and a half minutes (we had a 20 minute time limit) to bust through what PTs do for this particular disease.
We had a few questions at the end. I answered the first one, the second was related to another group member’s part of the presentation. I looked over to see her staring at me like she was waiting to hear my answer. I told her the question was all hers, and she answered it just fine. Then the professor asked her what the importance was of the random study she mentioned. I was happy she asked so at least we wouldn’t look weird for mentioning something that didn’t seem to have any relevance to our disease.
All and all, it was a good presentation. I can honestly say I think it was one of the better ones. BUT! I can’t call it a semester just yet. I have two more presentations this week and finals just around the corner.
It’s crazy how fast this is all moving!!!
The Life of a DPT Student 