On A Platter

Two weeks ago, I received an email from the two faculty members who are in charge of my current academic class block (we call them committees, for some reason). They're nice people, but the first few lines of the email set the tone for the course:

Dear Year II Students,

Welcome to the 2006 Nervous System Section of the Nervous System/Mind Committee. This memo may help you navigate the course, and most importantly, focus the use of your valuable time most efficiently.

If you don’t read any of this memo, please understand the following:
• Neuroanatomy is time consuming. Very time consuming. Respect that.
• There is only one exam. If you don’t keep up, your butt will be handed to you on a platter. Did we mention that you are expected to know neuroanatomy on the exam?
• (etc., etc., etc.)

The email continued for a couple pages, but those first few lines really captured the essence of what I'm feeling now: this stuff is hard. Really hard.

Today, after three hours of class and two hours of anatomy dissection lab, I studied straight for 12 hours (exluding some minimal driving time). I read several chapters of a textbook, a few dozen pages of class syllabus, and a few pages of a condensed review book, plus used a "virtual glossary" to understand the 3-dimensional nature of certain brain structures. And a few dozen horizontal, corontal, and sagittal "sections" of brain, mostly on CT or MRI. And I am still having a freakishly hard time understanding the acoustic and vestibular systems.

And, believe it or not, after thinking hard for 95% of my waking hours today, it's hard to concentrate on anything at 2:25am.

Tomorrow is Thursday. Then Friday. Then a three-day weekend.

And the unfortunate part? A three-day weekend just means an extra day to hopefully understand this stuff.

Enough is enough. I'm going to bed.

Mood: semiconscious
Song: "I Want You to Want Me" by Cheap Trick (live version)