Big Boy School, Week One

My first day of med school (previously referred to as “real” med school, heretoafterforthwith just med school) was uncannily similar to the first day of kindergarten.

I woke up all nervous and excited, with no clue what the day would bring. I had never been to Big Boy School before. I packed my lunch and set off for the University, a little part of me wanting to turn around and stay home…maybe sip a juicebox and watch cartoons. But when I got there, everyone else was milling around (20mins early like the overachievers we are) and I got quickly caught up in the din of school…trying to figure out who I would sit with (the kid with the he-man lunchbox, obviously), where my anatomy group (playgroup) friends were, etc.

Once the professors started teaching about sedimentation coefficients and energetic coupling, the feelings of kindergarten faded quickly. I had seen this all before in undergrad biochemistry and…my goodness…I remembered it! Granted I couldn’t spit out s = MW(1-vp)/Nf on cue, but I felt a long atrophied intellectual machinery start creaking into motion. It felt really good!

My studies surround three courses that describe how the body works at varying levels of detail: Biochemistry (very tiny), Cell / Tissue Structure (medium, but still invisible), and Anatomy (the mouth bone’s connected to the face bone…). I feel most comfortable with biochemistry, and least comfortable with anatomy, mainly because I ate/slept/breathed biochem in college and the last time I studied anatomy was in high school.

Things revved up very quickly this week, and – by modeling my 2^nd year roomate’s study habits – I have so far stayed ahead of the game. While I am still attending every lecture, I have been assured by many that most students end up attending less and less class and studying more and more on their own. This statement may seem shocking and horrifying to you, and that’s okay. But the truth of the matter (as conveyed to me) is that lecture introduces the topic and allows you to chew on it for an hour, but studying is required to make the material your own (to digest it, perhaps), and to really understand it. The pace of information in med school is so fast, that there’s no time to chew your food. You have to just get it in and make it your own.