1st Medical School Exam, and a bonus rant

Elation. Relief. Reinvigoration. I made it through my first exam unscathed, and with a renewed sense of optimism. I performed far better than I imagined in my most optimistic moments, and in hindsight I can see I worried far too much. This whole medical school thing? I think I can do it!

We were given nearly two hours to complete the computer portion of the exam (75 questions). I was surprised how little time it took me to get through—I finished in under an hour, allowing me 2 more hours to study for the practical. I was already in a good mood by that time, because we receive our computer portion scores immediately after we submit the test (I got an A), so there was an instantaneous relief of pressure. I headed to Panera bread, grabbed some coffee and a bagel, and sat down to leaf through my Grant’s Dissector (our lab manual for anatomy dissections).

I was impressed with the practical. The 3 anatomy labs hosted about 60 stations, 50 of which had structures to identify (the other 10 or so were waiting stations that provided an opportunity to relax, check spelling and reconsider answers). We had a minute per station, following-the-leader to the next item when the buzzer went off. 40 cadaveric structures (muscles, tendons, nerves, arteries, veins, ligaments etc) were marked with either “I.D.” or “motor innervation.” The other 10 included things like angiograms, cross sections, bone markings and CT scans. I found both the written and practical portions of the exam to be very fair; I can’t think of any negative criticism. I haven’t received my score for the practical, but I knew ahead of time that I could get 33 wrong and still pass.

I spent most of the weekend relaxing; I haven’t done any work whatsoever. On Friday I finally practiced trumpet and hit the gym, went out with other med students to a bar in the Arena district, and then ate cookies and played games all night. Saturday I saw “Up” (LOVED IT!) at a Dollar Theater (except it was $2, those lying bastards. **shakes fist**) and went out with a couple friends from D.C. who were in town for the OSU v USC game. This morning, Sarah, Mike, Duane and I engorged ourselves with a pancake brunch and watched this hilarious sketch comedy show I Netflixed called “Little Britain USA (I HIGHLY recommend it). Tonight my friend Chris is making me dinner; I hope I’m not still full with pancakes…

Time for a mini-rant. I got a call from our landlord telling us that she received a complaint that our grass is too long, and that we need to mow it by Monday lest she get in trouble with the township. Before I get too angry, I’ll concede that we agreed to mow the grass when we started renting the house, but we’ve been too busy to purchase a mower or pay a neighbor. That is being rectified in an hour thanks to Craigslist. So, fair is fair. That said—

1) Who the hell had the audacity to complain about a lawn that isn’t theirs? I don’t like the color schemes of some of the houses on our block. Should I have the legal right to complain to the city about them? Can I complain to the city about the dog that barks its head off and keeps me up at night?

2) Why should anyone care so much about a lawn in the first place, let alone someone else’s? It’s just grass! Aren’t there more important things to concern yourself with, or is your life really that boring and unfulfilled?

3) Lawns are an abomination anyway. It’s unnatural to have homogenous flora in the first place. That’s why weeds crop up. They’re not invading your lawn; it’s simply nature trying to reestablish equilibrium. This country has an unnatural obsession with lawns. We spend a fortune on fertilizers, weed killers, and we waste water on them during dry spells to keep them green. And hey, if grass isn’t green, that’s OK too! It’s normal. Grass goes dormant when it’s too dry. Find some other metric by which to judge your neighbors. Or, better yet, don’t judge your neighbors.

Alright, now I feel less pissed. I’m gonna go catch up on Project Runway!