Medical School Week 1

Though I don't know if this is unique to my school, the curriculum that I follow at my med school is a fairly rigid and structured one. It's been good for me I think, because it forces me to be more organized as well and it does encourage a more organized way of thinking and planning. Medical school is as much about organization as it is about memorization and other skills.

This brings me to a point of some embarrassment. I live like five minutes away from school, 3 if I walk fast. I should be the eager beaver that is usually at class 30 minutes before it starts --- theoretically. But as in biology and in life, things rarely work as they should theoretically and it turns out that I'm usually dashing into the classroom either right as the lecture is starting or even later. Since this year, we have more students than we have seats in our lecture halls, this has occasionally resulted in me glumly being left out of a seat, the loser in the medical school musical chair rendition. Then I had to trudge my lonesome self to the "overflow" room, located in a far corner of the building, a sad little room full of other sad left out creatures who get to stare at a screen for the next hour or two instead of the live action the other early birds get to enjoy.

But that's okay, this smart cookie has managed to befriend a few young unsuspecting classmates of hers who would be glad to save her a spot should she need it. She still operates under the delusion that she doesn't need a spot saver, but very soon, she will learn the usefulness of such a gift.

In other news, I hope to take up yoga on a regular basis because I want to take a pre-emptive attack on this thing called stress. I was telling a classmate today how I wasn't sleeping very well lately and she sorta cocked her head to the side and said, "could Emily be experiencing something called stress?" I replied very earnestly, "yes perhaps, but it's kind of a foreign concept to me." But seriously, I do think I will need a good coping mechanism in the days to come and yoga just might be that feel good stress buster.

More later...I just want to not do below the mean for my upcoming first exam in medical school. How's that for setting the bar high?