Woe is Anatomy Lab

I am down in the dumps. Less than 12 hours ago I posted about my optimism, but I'm on the complete opposite end of the spectrum. You probably would be, too, if you'd finally graduated from college and were faced with 4-5 additional years of learning much more difficult albeit interesting subject matter.

You guessed it: This week's Anatomy Quiz of Doom did not go well. I've done worse on this quizzes; I probably did as well as I did last week, that's not it. The fact is: I studied hard (aside from my little break to blog), went to open lab, and actually felt confident while I was taking the exam. I came out slightly disappointed because I had forgotten the word "malleolus" (the parts of the tibia and fibula that surround the ankle) and thought I had missed about five. However, there were an additional three that got away from me somehow. One, I know, was a misconception about what the sticker was referring to (I put "iliac crest" instead of "iliac fossa.") I didn't have time to check on the others because the person who graded my quiz was like a turtle.

Next week is the Big Kahuna of all exams. It's over all of the bones in the entire body, every fossa, tubercle, shaft, head, tuberosity, epicondyle, etc. I am worried that I just don't have what it takes to cut it, because my grade is suffering enough as it is. Dropping, however, is not an option.

Looking forward to the next semester has motivated me through times like this before, but I can't guarantee that next semester will be any better. Luckily, I'm taking physiology this summer, so the pain of that will only last three long weeks. But physics?

In undergrad, I had a policy that I can't pass judgment until after the first semester. Who knows what would have happened if I would have transferred from SNU based on my conceptions on that first freshman semester. Practically the day I returned from Christmas Break, I began hanging out with my next-door neighbor and her group of friends and that was probably my best semester of the entire college experience. So I am going to suck it up, ignore what everyone around me is telling me, and learn as much as I can. That's all I can do.

On a more positive note, we started cadaver lab today. We don't dissect like the Human Anatomy students at SNU do, but we did get down and dirty with a waitress and an oil field worker who both died of lung cancer. I handled it pretty well if I do say so myself. The formaldehyde gave me a bit of a headache after awhile, but I am not afraid of sanitation or internal organs or anything like that. Though I have to admit, the chicken sandwich my mom brought home looked disgusting. I had to pitch it for a nice bowl of Lucky Charms.

As much as I want to rest and study anatomy left and right, sagittal and transverse and coronal, I have to get ready for Night Class and Respiratory System vocabulary. Joys!