Trying to be Positive

There's only about 5 weeks left in the semester.  It's hard to believe it's already November...    Few things from "the outside world" manage to penetrate my protected world...but I made a little time to vote and watch some of the reports on the election results.  I planned to vote when the poles opened, but there was already a really long line when I got there at 6:50; so, I went back after class (at 6:00) and there was no line - it was great.  As many of you know, I was hoping McCain would win...but I'm trying to be positive...I'm sure Obama has good intentions...I'll just hold onto that for now.   I'm still trying to adjust to the demands of med school.  A few things I wish I had known before classes started: the first anatomy and biochem test are (by far) the easiest - bank some points here (cause you'll need them later), they weren't exaggerating when they (everyone) said that there is nothing that can prepare you for what is coming, and that the rules for remediation might actually apply to me (I remember thinking "I don't need to know any of this", when they covered this during orientation).  A few of us are already worried that we might have to remediate anatomy over the summer...  I'm trying to look at the positive side of that, too...it means I'll really know my anatomy (which I'll need later, anyway), and I'd much rather repeat one class over the summer, than repeat the entire first year (I think that's what happens if you fail 2 classes - see, I told you I wasn't really paying attention).    The really frustrating part is thinking about how much I am actually learning, and knowing that isn't good enough.  I can tell you where a structure is and what it does, and still miss the test question or tag in lab.  Histo is similar; I can ID a cell or organ on one slide, but not necessarily on the test slide (it doesn't help when he changes the colors - yes, they actually try to trick us).  Brett came home after seeing Dr. N yesterday (I think that was yesterday - it feels more like last week), and he said she stretched some muscle from "here" to "here", and he couldn't remember what it was called.  Without thinking, I said "the psoas (pronounced: so - as)?  I told him it's actually the psoas major and he may, or may not, have a psoas minor (as his eyes glazed over).  It's weird how much variation we all have - that some people have muscles, arteries, nerves and/or veins that most people don't have.    I'm learning lots of really cool stuff...I wonder if I'll ever have time to enjoy it...   Jen