Shouzer

Huh, so I remembered how to post. Maybe this’ll be my new, cool thing to do for the New Year. Maybe not. For those curious, the past couple months have consisted of school, research, and med school interviews. Now the first two are not so much fun. But, minus the stress and prep leading up to it, the interviews have been a good time actually. Bitching and moaning about the whole process and its associated waiting and seeming randomness with other applicants is funner than one would think. I’m now also a believer of the mantra that interviewing gets easier with practice - things just got easier and more natural for me…gotta see it to believe it I guess. As for what all’s going on with my application process, check me here. And why the anonymity on the profile, one may ask. Pretty much because admissions committees check mdapplicants and another site I’ve been known to frequent. I’ve recently started posting to SDN since it’s been a pretty big help in the app process for me, and I figured I’d share some of my pseudo-wisdom.

On the topic of med school, I’m in - and it feels pretty damn good I’ve even got some choices. A decade and a couple hundred thousand dollars from now, I might just have this doctoring thing figured out. Until then, I’ll have to settle for sometimes knowing what’s going on in medical shows and if I’m lucky, being able to point out things that are wrong. Since getting all involved in the application process, I’ve started reading med-related blogs and decided to start one up.

About school, I’m pretty sure one of my exams today was an exercise in bullshitting, because that’s what I spent the majority of my time doing. And for once in my undergrad, I didn’t really care. I mean, I’ll still study and whatnot, but if some exam decides to tear me a new one, it’s not that big a deal…at least not for another 9 months. Hell, as long as I don’t get any Cs, med schools are done caring about GPA, meaning that so am I - and it feels pretty damn good.

And since everyone loves a little premed learning here’s a couple of things I’ve learned so far. Fun words to throw around in anatomy: peduncle, tubercle/tuberosity, calcaneus, gastrocnemius, pterygoid, mastoid, caruncle, fundus, sartorius. If you tear your ACL or rupture your Achilles, it’s gotta be pretty violent because that shit is pretty strong, even on cadavers. Oh, and the skull has holes. A lot of them. Stuff goes through these holes. Once in a cadaver lab and you will *never* forget that smell. When you’re a fetus, your lower body pretty much gets shafted in terms of nice, oxygenated blood. Bacterial pathogenesis: bacteria sometimes good, sometimes bad. Bacteria can be little thiefs by using your own stuff against you. Bacteria living in cells - a bitch to get rid of. Sneaky bacteria that never show themselves outside of cells are ninja-like and just might kill you. The ballsy bacteria which can get into and live in your bloodstream *will* kill you. Medical ethics - here are two sides of a moral argument…you decide. Just don’t break the law, piss anyone off, or kill anyone. Immunology - something binds something which signals something to do something. Oh wait, it matters how well, when, with whom, where, and why things bind. Vaccines are good. Viruses are pretty hard to deal with. Neurogenesis research - the brain makes new neurons, who knew? Figure out why and how this happens. Maybe I’ll get more learned with physiology and endocrinology next semester.

Back to the post title - it’s always a good feeling when your landlord tapes a notice to your door telling you the following. “Valuable stuff: leave it behind over Christmas break and it will probably get stolen.” Thanks, CPM. That’s why I gave you a security deposit. And about the apartment, I refute the theory of heat rising. Actually, I take that back. After living in a loft, heat only rises if it’s summer. When it’s winter, heat does *not* rise - it stays on the first level of the apartment. I’ll defend that thesis to the death.