Eye Love Pirates (And My Class!)

Eyes. I hate them. We had a slide of an eyeball with a nail through it in the lecture titled "Head Trauma" and I almost barfed. 

But luckily, one of my classmates posted a little something on Facebook that made me like eyes today.

Courtesy of my classmate (we are supposed to call each other "colleagues" but I don't like it) Logan: "Fun fact: It can take the rods [cells that help you see in the dark] in your eyes almost 30 minutes to adjust to low light. This is why pirates wear eye patches. They are constantly moving from the deck of a ship (where the light reflecting off the water can be blinding) to below deck (often very dark). In order to save time waiting for their eyes to adjust, they just moved the eye patch over."

I almost fell over in my study chair that I've been sitting in since 10am (did you see how I inserted a complaint without complaining? It's a talent.) That is genius. Public health measure to stop the elderly from falling when they get up and go back to bed in the night? I think so! Eye-patches for the seniors!

On the subject of Facebook posts, our class is adorable on Facebook. Since we arrived in Boston in August, we have been posting things to do, Groupons, fun events, practice exams, study guides, tips from professors, and funny med school related websites or jokes. The posts don't ever stop. Double on holidays. I get five or more notifications a day. We love each other and it's so great. And so helpful to get advice from so many people. We actually have about eight ways to contact the whole class at once, and our class somehow uses all of them except the portal actually made for us to communicate by the university. I guess it's too "on-the-record" for us.

Here is another funny post. It's a website about what medical school is like based on another popular website., but I think anyone could enjoy some of the posts. CLICK HERE!!!!!

As always, I should be studying. Back to my chair. Oh wait...still sitting in it. 

And for fun, white board art (I prefer fun pictures to actual knowledge on white boards. Usually when you enter a study room there is an intimidating amount of info on the board. I erase the knowledge and add some fun to the study environment.)

Note the sheep, sheep-shaped cloud, school of fish, penguins, igloos, ice cubes, tsunami, raincloud, hurricane, tornado, surfer, my brain with a lot of oxytocin, and a whole lot of fabulous. These things get me through study weekends. 

Night!

It's a Marathon

Exciting news - Massachusetts has it's own holiday. It is technically Patriots Day, but around these parts, it's called the Boston Marathon!

So on Monday I walked over to the Prudential Center and watched people run. These people were amazing. Some were my age, but most runners were way older than me, and in waaaay better shape. Running mile after mile after mile in pretty ridiculous heat. I was impressed. Excitingly enough, 3 of my medical school classmates ran the marathon, so I got to cheer them on as they approached the finish line. Very fun, very exciting.

But of course, I didn't run the marathon, so to make myself feel better, I decided to relate my medical education to running a marathon (I can't physically run, but maybe my brain can!). I may only be on the first 5K of my med school marathon, but I am going at a pretty steady pace, maybe even picking up speed. The beginning of my dorky marathon metaphor was probably as terrifying as starting a real marathon. I didn't know what to expect and was pretty much terrified (I think I lost 5 lbs from being to nervous to eat back then). But I started and pretty much just kept going. I am assuming that during a marathon there are things like hills, cramps, exhaustion, anger, frustration, fear, excitement, feelings of imminent death, I could go on and on. And I am pretty sure I have experienced all of those already - or I could at least come up with metaphors for them. But here I am, sitting in a windowless study room on a beautiful day learning about the brain for my next exam (well, technically I am blogging, but when I am done, back to the books!).

I hope that I don't fatigue to badly over the course of my med school marathon, but right now I feel really far away from the finish line (which could arguably either be graduation or finishing residency). Thankfully I have a lot of people cheering me on at the sidelines, because without a whole lot of support and some serious brain stamina, I am never going to make it.