A Post of Quotes

"My personality description: I am an awesome person. Everyone likes me the moment they meet me. I am the life of the party and all of your lives will be improved once you have spent a day, nay, an hour with me."

I pilfered that from my friend's AIM blurb, which she took from her roommate (who had always wanted to say that in person to someone). I thought it was amusing and worthy of sharing. :-P
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"In May, one or two huge decisions must be made and they affect many besides yourself . . . Gather your lieutenants. Sit down at a big table and sort out the details of these issues . . . You think big when you might better be thinking small . . . Drop the control freak behavior. You want to be everywhere at once, doing everything and doing it well. You must however make an attempt to concentrate on events at hand."

That's part of my horoscope for May from Facebook, lol. In many ways, it's eerily accurate. There are lots of decisions to be made this month, especially where student organizations and programs are concerned that I'm president/co-president/co-chair of. I may be overextending myself, and I may need to let go and trust my other board members to get things done (in a timely and organized manner). Fortunately, I make a big emphasis to make sure everyone's on board with something before I make a final decision - so I'd like to think that I'm a pretty good collaborator. So much work to be done over the summer, bleh.

"Love life? What's that? You will be far too occupied to play at hearts and flowers. There might be a tiny flirtation in the wings around the 21st of the month. But it won't lead anywhere because you will not let it . . . right?"

Well, that doesn't bode well, lol. So Drew broke up with his bf of 3-4 months. For good now (the reasons of which I shall not reveal here). He's still super-busy and it's still pretty difficult to get a hold of him on either AIM or Facebook just to chat. But that's fine, he has finals, I have finals, we all have finals. Studying should come first. I wonder where this might go, if anywhere at all. And given my like and the portends above, chances are it'll go nowhere. :-/
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"He decided to open a sporting goods store instead because he wanted to get as much out of his life as he could before it was shortened by the disease."

That's a quote from this article. In short, a patient goes to see his doctor about whether or not he should go to med school. The patient asks that question because he has a family history of Huntington's disease, an autosomal dominant genetic disease. The patient finds out he does have the gene allele for Huntington's, which means he'd have symptoms starting in his mid-30s to early-40s, and he'd probably die by his 50s or 60s.

And so, instead he expresses what's quoted above. In a way, that's saying something. Particularly the part "because he wanted to get as much out of his life as he could." Those words are rather chilling (perhaps oddly so) for me to read.

Sometimes I do wonder. It's not like I'm going to drop out of med school (willingly), but I entertain the thought from time to time. I had a conversation with a friend earlier today about med school education. We're both soundly frustrated (as is pretty much everyone in our class) with the way med students are educated. The sheer volume we have to cram into our heads (and M1 year is like, nothing compared to M2 year) is just not productive. We can't retain it long-term. We have to re-learn everything, almost from scratch, every time.

Actually, let me rephrase myself. I've "learned" surprisingly little in med school. I've "studied" a lot though. Anything that I learn - like "really" learn - I retain long-term (at least for a few months to a few years). Studying means I just know it for a test and then move on. I learned a lot in undergrad and grad school, and I retain a lot of it. I retained more from my undergrad biochem class than my med school biochem class. There's something wrong with that. I hate studying things over and over again, because I didn't learn it well the first time (because it wasn't taught well). Some things don't really get that much easier the 2nd or even 3rd time around. ::cough:: cardiovascular physiology ::cough::

I remember the days when learning used to be fun, stimulating, engaging. I remember the days when I walked out of lecture able to recall exactly what I was expected to learn, rather than be utterly confused. I miss those days.
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"I'm Yours" by The Script

The refrain:

I may not have the softest touch
I may not say the words as such
And though I may not look like much
I'm yours.

And though my edge is maybe rough
I never feel I'm quite enough
And it may not seem like very much
But I'm yours.