First semester of medical school: DONE.

It’s hard to describe the experience in words: it’s flown by so fast (and yet so slowly), but before I knew it, I found myself sitting here at my desk trying to convey how utterly surreal it’s been (while haphazardly trying to pack for my flight to Taiwan tomorrow morning). I’ve met lots of amazing people, am astounded with how much I’ve learned in only 6 months, and am desperately trying to figure out how I’m supposed to keep all this information in my head.

Classmates have been making status updates with how we’re “1/8th” of a doctor now — and the thought is kind of terrifying. If this semester is any indication, 7 more will fly right on by and I’ll be responsible for people’s lives. Holy. Cow.

…trying not to let that thought get the best of me. Until then, I’m going half way around the world on a long-awaited vacation. Prepare for upcoming picture posts! :)

When I tell people I’m in medical school, one of the first questions they ask me is how I feel walking out of anatomy lab — namely, am I hungry, despite having worked with and stared at a dead person’s body for an hour or three? (In case you didn’t know, people say that you get really hungry after anatomy lab.)

Today, I “milked” my cadaver’s large intestines in order to clean it out of feces. (Or, put succintly, I squeezed some bowels and took out some poop.) And in about 15 minutes, I’m heading over to an Indian buffet for some grub.

…I think it’s safe to say that rumor is true.

You know that feeling you get when you feel like suddenly you’ve gotten yourself in too deep? Or maybe you just realized what kind of insanity you just got yourself into? (You know, it goes a little something like “Oh shit.“)

My first round of exams start on Friday, and I’ve been freaking out about them since a week and a half ago. I’m also starting to think that I spend more time at school and the library than I do back home…which is kind of unfortunate. I feel like medical school is one big oxymoron — I feel so incredibly lucky that I get to be here, but at the same time I hate it. I hate medical school. I hate the feeling of sitting in class and getting lost in the material within 10 minutes, and I hate the feeling of medical school because it’s seriously like taking a drink of water from a fire hydrant that’s spewing water at a million miles per hour. I hate being tired all day, and I hate the fact that I’m starting to need stronger coffee because I’m starting to build a tolerance to normal doses of caffeine. (An aside: no joke, this one urologist I shadowed in college needs 4 mugs of coffee before work. Every morning.) I hate having to study every week like it’s finals just to keep up with the material, and I hate the fact that I just spent 80% of my first three day weekend in the library. (No. Really.)

But then you get to volunteer at a clinic for women who are in unfortunate circumstances, and you realize why you’re having to put yourself through that kind of hell in the first place. You get to shadow surgeons in the midst of saving lives, and you find yourself falling in love with medicine all over again. You get to work with outstanding faculty who really just want to teach you everything they know, and you meet amazing people with incredible experiences before they even came to medical school.

I really just wish medical schools could incorporate more of the latter stuff so us students won’t forget why we’re in school in the first place.

Also: I’m sort of convinced that J.K. Rowling drew her inspiration for naming the spells in the Harry Potter books from anatomy terms…because, really, don’t orbicularis oculi (the muscle around your face that’s responsible for closing the eyelid), plica semilunaris (that fleshy, moony part in the inner corner of your eye), and infidibulum (refers to funnel-shaped cavities in the body) sound like something Harry Potter would shout out during an epic battle with Voldemort?

…or maybe it’s just me.