Hello everyone!

I am Meghan Knol, one of your M1 bloggers. I am originally from Ann Arbor, but I have been away for 9 years. I went to Wash U for undergrad, then moved to Miami, FL and did a postbacc and Master's at Barry University in Miami Shores. I am thrilled to be back in Ann Arbor (and so are my parents), but I'm feeling a little apprehensive about the winter after several years in Florida.

So far, we are just wrapping up our first sequence of our first year of medical school: Patients and Populations. It has been a mix of genetics, basic pathology, epidemiology and medical decision-making – definitely an interesting combo to begin with, and I feel as though I have learned a lot.

The balance between studying/learning and the rest of life was really important to me in choosing Michigan, and I haven't been disappointed. Several of my classmates and I participated in the Running Between the Vines half-marathon two weeks ago in nearby Jackson, MI, and we are training for the Detroit Marathon in October.

The flextime quizzing makes it easy to choose which day to take my quiz, so we can run fun races, and still do well in our studies. It will definitely be helpful this weekend, as the first Michigan football game is on Saturday. I got season tickets along with a large group of my classmates, and am super excited for Big Ten football! Go Blue!

Tomorrow is our student activities fair, and I'm really looking forward to learning more about the different student groups. I know I'm going to put my name on a few mailing lists, such as AMWA and Galen's, but there are definitely some other groups I'm looking forward to learning more about. It has been an exciting first few weeks, and I hope to tell you all a little more about different groups and experiences as I have them. For now, it's time to get back to studying.

- Meghan