"I've Never Let My School Interfere With My Education"- Mark Twain

Have you ever sat through a lecture and thought "I know exactly what Charles Schultz was thinking when he made the teacher in Charlie Brown sound like WOMP WOMP WOMP"?? Well, on Wednesday, medical school lectures officially started and I had three hours like that, and then on Thursday I had 3 more. Additionally, on Friday, I would have added another 4 more scintillating hours of boredom and confusion, except that I took an earlier train to Boston for the weekend, only to find out that a "hurricane" in the Northeast is really only a slight rain.

Each day, classes start at 9 am and for about the next 3 hours, professor after professor rotates through our one classroom (which would not be so bad if the rows and seats were not so incredibly close together that we have to sit on the aisles to truly be able to get up to use the restroom in class) presenting to us whatever we are supposed to be learning that day. As first "semester" first years we take classes on cell biology, biochemistry, physiology, anatomy, and the more touchy feely/real doctor learning courses of Professional Responsibility, Research, and PreClinical Clerkship. For most classes, we also have little small group discussion sessions, which are more mandatory attendance than lecture, and feature such topics as reading biochemistry scientific journals or understanding a patient case in physiology. As a non-science major, I knew that this semester was going to be tough the minute our biochemistry professor asked us who had taken biochemistry, and then who had taken two semesters of biochemistry, only to realize that the real way to count only a small number of people was to ask, who had not taken ANY biochemistry. To this last question, only about 6 people (this includes me) slyly raised our hands, hoping not to out ourselves as the ones who would have the most trouble in the course or the ones who "really did not scientifically prepare in undergraduate to be DOCTORS". This same type of response in undergraduate would have freaked me out (and did, as I dropped Calculus I the minute I realized that nearly everyone in the class had taken AP Calculus BC and was basically retaking the class, and then I heard that the only A's would be given to the same number of people who managed to get A's on the final. Using what little math I was able to do, I deduced that I could not possibly be one of these A's, and immediately, dropped the class), but since our class is not curved and I merely need to "pass" it, I quickly realized that it was not so bad to be an average student for once. I will admit, however, that the only thing I got out of the lectures for the week (perhaps due to the womp womp of chemical and biological terms) was that cell biology uses models and that models go through phases. Truthfully, the only reason that this stuck in my head was my attempting to be "hip" professor showed a picture of Kate Moss and then a drugged up picture of Kate Moss, respectively, to illustrate these points.

For me it is near impossible to see the purpose in learning mostly all of first year classes except anatomy. I often find myself closing my eyes and thinking...someday, you will be allowed to talk to REAL LIVE PEOPLE. I am also secretly hoping for the possibility of a humanities course to balance my life, or even qualitative research to take my mind off of science, and have somehow already gotten myself involved in analyzing the journal entries from HIP and excited about the medical humanities lectures (where I hope to find people to emulate and learn from). Though in college, taking anthropology became my out from taking science all of the time, being in a school of only science now, I am beginning the search for my balance, and well, my sanity.

Being a pretty un-stressed out studier, perhaps due to my humanities roots, makes me pretty cynical of my type A classmates who likely need to study and ace their first test before they realize that they can finally chill out. At first I thought I would need to make a study group for the "less scientifically inclined" of us, only to find out that these people were studying already, freaking out, and perhaps, would only heighten my stress of what to learn in order to pass, and how much I did not already know. One night I walked over to the dorm for dinner only to notice that there was a group of about 20 students intently studying their notes from the day before, making sense of every word, looking up everything they did not know. When I asked them how they could possibly need to study our ONLY two days of lectures, they responded seriously that this was how they learned, and looked truly confused over my whimsical lack of stress over it all. All I can say in response to this situation is... thank god I am not living in the dorm. Just the thought of being around this much studying makes me think I need to study...and well, I can feel the anxiety and dark circles forming already. And, do not even get me started on elective classes and my classmates desire to spend their "free time" doing MORE SCHOOL, instead of say, working out, playing with their dogs, hanging out with their friends, or even, volunteering and participating in clubs. Now, I know that many of my classmates signed up for non-school related extracurriculars (as club sign up day could best be described as a clusterfuck), but, they are also the type of people who overcommit to more classes, more research, and more volunteering, until well, they finally realize that they do not have to be THAT busy, or that ACTUAL free time makes them happy. Luckily, I am ahead of the game and have already come to this conclusion.