A week ago I was back in cold Pennsylvania shoving all of my dress shirts in my luggage wondering what it was going to be like to experience an AARC Congress. Just barely a week later (in still-warmer-than-PA California) I'm almost at a loss of words to describe what it has been like. It's been quite a whirlwind adventure for sure!
My week started off last Thursday with the AARC's House of Delegates meeting. This was thanks to a mentorship program the House of Delegates has set up to encourage students to get involved. They have a whole committee dedicated just to mentoring students! I sat with the representatives from my state for the two day meeting and it was just such an honor to be in a room with people who have volunteered so much of their time, effort, and talent to our profession. I was even able to address the House and offer a suggestion of my own on a topic they were discussing. It was an incredible experience, but this was just the beginning!
Saturday was not only the start of the Congress, but also the first day of the Sputum Bowl! My teammates flew out the night before and we started playing Saturday morning. Student teams from 17 states showed up, and they were truly the best of the best, not to mention really cool people to meet. PA made it into the final 8 teams before we were knocked out, but it was was such a blast to even get that far! The PA practitioner team made it to the finals (and ended up placing 3rd!), so we got to sit at the posse table for finals night, which was awesome in its own respect.
Finally, there was the actual Congress. I sat in on a lot of talks by some pretty well known people, certainly not least of all Dean Hess. The exhibitor hall was seriously out of this world. I probably spent more time in the hall talking with people about new technologies than I did in the actual talks! It was such a great learning experience and I really could not have planned this to be at a better time. Commencement is only a few short weeks away (Yay!) and having access to the foremost experts in almost every aspect of respiratory care under one roof is truly just a unique experience.
There is so much more (volunteering at the PAC booth, going to the breakfast symposia, the Lambda Beta reception, Dräger and Aerogen parties, etc), but by now I hope you have some sense of what its been like: genuinely extraordinary!
My advice to any students out there reading this: you need to do this!! This week has made me so excited to be a respiratory therapist! Find the time, scrounge the money together, do whatever you have to because this is an experience unlike any other you'll have in your education and one you will surely not forget!