Officially Megan Hammis, RD! New blog.

Hello friends and followers.

I realized that I have not posted on this blog in a very long time, and I thought it would be appropriate to make two announcements.

1 – I am no longer Megan Smith, RD – but I am in fact Megan Hammis, RD!  I married my best friend on 9-22-12.

2 – The reason I no longer update this blog is because I started a new one since my road to the RD has ended.  You can visit me for updates at www.keepingitrd.com – I am the “Keeping It Real” Dietitian.

One road leads to another door…

My journey continues, and I’m extremely happy to report my newest pit-stop on my way.

My interview on Wednesday went very well.  I believe that the dietitians that interviewed me were impressed with me and liked my personality.  I haven’t heard back from them yet regarding the position, but at this point it won’t matter either way.

My great news is… I’ve accepted the position of registered dietitian at the Inner Door Center, where I will be working alongside a great staff of professionals, namely my mentor throughout college Beverly Price, RD, MA, RYT!! <— can’t wait til I have that many credentials after my name.

This truly is a dream job for me.  I volunteered with Beverly while I was going through college, took an eating disorders course during school just because it was my interest area, and spent some time working on Eating Concerns Awareness Week while I was in the Student Dietetic Association at CMU.  Although I had somewhat lost interest while in the internship (mostly due to the fact that I was doing clinical/acute care dietetics day in and day out), my passion for helping patients with EDs is still there as I realized today.  I did a patient assessment with ease, wrote my first SOAP note since college (and honestly did a horrible job), and got to collaborate with the team.  I already feel warmly welcomed into the group and look forward to what next week has to offer!  I’m so excited to bring my fresh RD-ness to the table.

I will also be working as the social media manager, which you must realize is right up my alley.  I will be working on the blog for the center, as well as Facebook and Twitter.  Couldn’t really ask for anything better, honestly.

SO!!  T.G.I.F.!! I know the next few weeks will be insane and hectic, especially since I now have to train someone (or more than one person) to replace me at my current job and phase myself out of there, plus get reacquainted with the program at Inner Door Center and all the Chakras.  Woooo, do I have some homework to do!  But it is all so, so worth it.

A Great End to a Great Week

It’s Friday!  My normal “blog day”.  Now that the stress of studying for the RD exam is over, maybe I will get back to posting blogs on a regular basis.  Maybe.

Obviously, my week has been pretty phenomenal.  It was a bit stressful in the beginning, waiting to take the exam, but when I got my printout that said that I DID IT… everything has just been on my side since.

Today I was called for an interview, I made plans to reconnect with a great mentor Beverly Price, and I received some good news at my current job.  Now, of course, none of things could actually pan out to be what I want them to be… but they could all work out, too… and if that’s the case, I’ve got some serious thinking to do!

This weekend is going to be filled with fun and friends.  One of my best friends is in town this week, I don’t get to see her often so I’m looking forward to spending some time with her.  Tonight I’m celebrating my RD accomplishment with my fiance and his best friends, then watching True Blood with a good friend of mine.  Tomorrow I am celebrating again with two of my internship friends over dinner, and possibly going out to celebrate a friend’s 21st birthday.  Sunday is the main 21st birthday celebration, and Monday starts all the crazy job opportunity fun!  Whew!  I have a feeling that by this time next week I could be completely exhausted!

Can’t wait to share the adventures with you next Friday.  I promise I will try very hard to be a regular blogger again.

The long and winding road…

It may not be the end of the road, but it is one huge mile marker… one big rest stop along the way in my career… or better yet, the amusement park I’ve been driving to since, oh, August 2007.

Yep, that’s right guys.  You are officially reading the blog of Megan Smith, RD.

I took the exam today at 1pm.  And it was every bit as stressful as I thought it was going to be.  Although the first few questions did seem very easy, and I was like… really?  This is the national exam?  But then it got harder, of course.

None of that matters though.  I passed.  I did it!

Since the exam is different for everyone who takes it, my advice will be very general, short, and sweet.

1. Don’t put it off.  I did.  I wish I hadn’t.
2. Don’t stress over knowing EVERYTHING.  You’ll never know every last detail, and with a bank of thousands of questions, who knows what you’ll be tested on?  It’s not worth the stress.
3. Take practice exams.  There is a website that will send you practice questions weekly – sign up for it as soon as you can so you can get as many questions as possible.  I swear that some of the questions I had on the test were almost identical to the questions I saw in my practice exams.
4. Breathe and try to relax.  I almost had a heart attack, I swear, waiting to get through the evaluation to find out if I passed or not.  My heart rate was through the roof!  Figure out a way to relax and know what you’ll do in the worst case scenario… but you’ll be fine!

So now I hope to update more often with more interesting things about my life as a new RD!  I can’t believe it… after 3 grueling years of undegrad, an intense 10 month internship, and weeks of studying… a little over an hour for the exam and wham… I’ve reached my first big goal… I’m a registered dietitian!!!!

Hello? Is anybody out there?

So guys, I’ve really been slacking.  Sorry for not posting.  It’s been over a month and I know that’s lame.  But honestly I haven’t felt much like posting.  There hasn’t been a whole lot of positives in my life to post about, and I hate being dramatic and posting about the negatives.  But I’ll summarize the last month and a half for you all…

I found out that the job I really wanted had been filled.  That was a real bummer.  They couldn’t hire me until I got my RD.  I’ve been so scared to take the exam.

I’ve been rejected so many times for jobs I’ve applied for, or not even gotten a response.  Pretty depressing.

I did catch up with some of my fellow interns, Jenn and Patty.  We had sushi together.  Then we got together and had a major study session at Starbucks.  Definitely two positive days… and of course there have been more positive days.  Like September 22, 2011 – a year away from my wedding date.  And I spent last weekend with my sister, brother in law, nephew and their friends in Lansing.  Bummer of the weekend – the CMU Chippewas got killed by the MSU Spartans in football.  BOO.

My manager at my current job has had some health issues recently, which is stressful for me because I’m very close to him.  He’s like a second father or strange uncle.  I’ve also had to work a lot of hours because of this, on top of it being our busiest time of year.  Which is great for the pocketbook, but terrible for studying.

I finally decided I needed to schedule my RD exam so I would kick my own butt and study hard.  The day I scheduled it, I also applied for some babysitting jobs.  And then the brakes on my car went.  And not long after that my manager had to go to the ER and I worked 2 10 hour days in a row.  Yeah.

So I’m studying now, I’m feeling a little more confident.  And I have plans to get together with Jenn and Patty again soon to do some more studying.  5 out of 8 interns have taken the RD exam now, and all of them have passed… so I guess what am I worried about?  I just always compare myself to everyone else, and I don’t think I’m as smart as the other interns are.  But I guess we’ll see… I only have to be smart enough to pass the exam, not ace it.

I applied to two more jobs tonight.  Really hope I at least get an interview for one of them, because I’m pretty sick of being disappointed, and I really don’t want to work at the music store and work various other part-time jobs for the rest of my life.

T.G.I.F!!!

Today was a FANTASTIC day.  Honestly the most enjoyable day of my summer.  It really felt like one of those nice summer days… relaxing, full of smiles and laughs… and delicious food!

My day started with a quick trip to Kohl’s where I got over $70 worth of stuff for $35 + tax.  Yahoo!  Love combining discounts and gift certificates.  I got two more of my very favorite shirts that I’m obsessed with (super flattering, and you can wear them dressed up or dressed down – work, out for the night, or with yoga pants!) and some “sexy little things” since I haven’t gotten anything new in that department in well over a year.  I also went to Target to get a tube top to wear so I wouldn’t get funky tanlines during my next adventure…

… which was when my friend Jacklyn picked me up and we headed to Stony Creek Metropark to do some paddleboating.  We got turned around on the lake as we relaxed and floated, but we figured out where we had ended up and paddled back in.  We definitely got some sun – I am very pink!  We drove around the park for a while, then headed back home.  On our way, we passed my favorite cider mill – Yate’s – and I smelled DONUTS!  Their sign read “donuts for sale Friday and Saturday only” and I said we had to stop!  So we grabbed a half dozen donuts (cinnamon sugar, YUM!) and walked the trails for a while.  We ended up getting attacked by killer mosquitoes (I swear I have 20+ bites!) before we turned back.  On our way out, we stopped at the “petting zoo” and were greeted by some ADORABLE baby goats.  I swear, goats are so cute.

On our drive back towards home we stopped at a Farmer’s Stand for some sweet corn, and I ended up getting $10 worth of some awesome Michigan grown fresh produce!  Check out my swag:

All this? For $10? Well, the donuts not included... plus we also got some yummy redskin potatoes!

After that pitstop, Jacklyn suggested we make dinner together with our food finds, and I thought it was a great idea!  I grabbed some chicken from my house, a bottle of wine, and we headed over to her boyfriend’s to make a delicious dinner.  Overall… it was a great day and I’m so glad I got to spend my day off in such good company.

To see what the result of our dinner was, check out my posts from my other blogs!!  Here’s the weekly run down…

• Shedding for the Wedding (weight loss blog): Megs Recommends… and Weekly Wrap Up

Study Hard!

Well, guess what?  I got the news that I can officially take the RD exam!  I got my authorization to test letter and paid my $200, so now all I have to do is schedule a testing date.  :::gnaws on finger nails::: This was supposed to take 3-6 weeks!

So I started studying.  I hate studying.  I’m terrible at it.  And I feel like it will be for nothing because I have heard that no matter WHAT people study, when they get their test, it is never what they studied.  Kinda like the GRE.  There’s SO MUCH that could possibly be on the test that it’s impossible to study it all and know it all.  Especially when I want to take my test as soon as possible…

I thought you all should know that I write two other blogs other than this one, but this is my “main blog”.  So every Friday I will try to post links to my other blog posts that I’ve made that week.  Lots of reading… lots of writing for me… but hey, I’m a bloggy kinda girl.

Here’s this week’s blogs:

• Shedding for the Wedding Blog (weight loss blog): Megs Recommends… and Weekly Wrap Up
• My Something Blue Blog (wedding planning blog): Update on Our Wedding Plans