Thursday, November 15, 2007

Tact

Here is an actual email I received today.

Tomorrow the Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy will be having a luncheon in the elevator lobby on the 6th floor. At the request of the Department, please travel to the Gross Anatomy Lab by taking the elevator to the 5th floor and the stairs (nearest to the lab) up to the 6th floor. Please avoid the main elevator lobby. Thank you for your cooperation in this.

And this is my interpretation.

Students, you literally stink. The repulsiveness of your even transient presence would ruin appetites, and needless to say any food sharing space with you untouchables would be unfit to eat. Stay the hell away from our luncheon. Love, The Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Reality

Notice how I have not written anything since I started school? That was the cold hard grasp of reality seizing the enthusiastic premed. Med school... is hard. (I know, I know. It is shocking.) We have class most mornings from eight till noon, then again in the afternoon on one of the two afternoons a week we aren't scheduled to be in lab till five. In the evenings I read anatomy and biochemistry, either at my carrel in the library, listening to the ambulances and sobbing families, or in the comfort of my own home, listening to the meth addicts screaming from my driveway or the sweet neighborhood kids breaking glass bottles out in the street. That is an exaggeration. The meth addicts usually wait until three in the morning to resolve their drama, when I am (or would have been) asleep. It rarely interferes with studying.

But I survive. I wade through the endless swamp of origins and insertions and aponeuroses and GLUT receptors and cytokines and cultural sensitivity, swatting away the gunners which bite peskily at my exposed skin. I trudge along, daring to hope I will one day reach the estuary of residency and some current will carry me into the sea of medicine, where I'll most likely drown. In debt. Actually, that is not a half-bad overblown analogy. You are a med student. You are struggling along, it isn't pleasant, and every so often the thought comes to mind "Maybe I could just quit." Sure, you could quit. So you stop. Stand there a bit. Maybe turn a circle and fully take in the dark water and drooping, desolate trees surrounding you on all sides. A red-headed woodpecker sounds in the distance.

Which way is the exit?

Or, better yet, you could take a break. Get airlifted out of the swamp, and put back at the mouth next August. Retrudge all you have trudged so far again next year, back to this moment, two tests behind you, one final in front, wondering why, why haven't last week's anatomy grades been posted yet? After all you have been through, is it so much to ask?

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Hobbies

I have moved in! Before the next time I move, I vow to give up reading and to begin collecting stuffed animals instead. If this happens soon, I foresee a difficult time passing the boards.

Monday, June 25, 2007

Apartment

The great apartment hunt has been completed! Happily, I will not be living in a refrigerator box and hanging around the back of restaurants for scraps. Though that would make for an interesting blog--The Homeless Med Student. If I could somehow acquire a child in the process I bet it would be worth a book deal, even a movie option.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Amazon

I am ever plagued on Amazon by my browsing/buying history. It started years ago, when I bought one (ONE!) book, Drawing Down the Moon, by Margot Adler. The book is an examination of modern day goddess-worship in the US. I had heard the author on NPR, and her work sounded interesting. Next thing you know, my recommended books list is filled with titles like Morgaine Starburst's Spell Guide for Getting Even with Your Ex, Making Yourself Seem Edgy, and Annoying Your Protestant Parents!.

I have this problem yet again from pricing some textbooks online. I don't actually enjoy reading various anatomy textbooks in my free time. I am only interested in those corresponding to the exact ISBNs I entered into the search bar. If a book has a picture of a prancing, dancing, or otherwise posed skinless human corpse on the cover, it is not what I am casually browsing Amazon in hopes of finding.

Monday, April 09, 2007

Making Plans

I have chosen a medical school. The desire not to go more than $160,000 in debt sure does make that decision a lot easier! Also, you know, all the rejection letters. But I was accepted to a school that I loved when I went for my interview. My next step is going to be finding a place to live. I might be semi-homeless until I get around to that this summer. At this point, I am just thankful to have survived the application process. There is a part of me that looks back on it and wonders why I spent all that time studying for the MCAT (hour after unholy hour), writing the best possible AMCAS essay (should I exploit the illness of someone I love, or one of my own personal hardships?) and researching schools (what level of Fancypants Medical School is right for me?) to then go instate. But I truly enjoyed the time I spent at the school when I interviewed, and I was impressed with all the students and faculty that I met. I think (I hope) that I have made the right decision.