Abra Cadaver

Okay. I've finally gotten over my OCD (I finally reached 100 posts and somehow the OCD was preventing me from posting any more... don't ask. I don't get it either).

Well, today was very interesting... I got invited by a pre-med student my mom knows to spend a day with her at her school. I ended up going into the city the night before, seeing as it would make going to class early in the morning much easier. Once I arrived, I was given a quick tour of the house and then Michelle (the pre-med student) told me she needed to read, so she gave me the liberty of looking around the house, checking out the medical books and whatnot.  Not really knowing what to do, I did what I know how to do best: reading. I picked up a couple of her medical books, mainly anatomy ones, and took them to her eldest sons room (where I was to be sleeping). It was roughly 9 in the evening, so I sat down in the bed and began leafing through the books. But not too shortly in it, I looked up, and realized how awfully foreign everything was. Not only had I never met this family before, nor been in their house, or the room I was sleeping in, but I felt so completely unknowledgeable in most of the simple subject I was reading through. It made a part of me so completely... discouraged. I felt like I should know this by now. I have always known I wanted to go into medicine, so why haven't I already started studying basic anatomy?? A part of me was very disappointed in myself, which made the other half of me begin to really look at the book. I now realize that I am young, I have two more years until I even begin medical school. I can start now. I feel like I'm getting a late start, but compared to many... I really am not.
Anyways, to the next day (the more exciting part). I was woken up around 6 30 by the kids' noise of getting ready (she has three kids, Andrew [age 11], Patrick [9] and Oliver [5-ish].). Giving up struggling to sleep longer, I get up a little while afterwards, and begin to get dressed. Once I'm done, I went downstairs and chatted with Michelle and Kelsey (her kids' nanny- young girl, just out of highschool helping Michelle out). At 7 30 we piled into the car and went to the school, dropping the elder 2 off at school first.
The first class was Bio-Chem. Now, normally this wouldn't have been strange for me... except it was in English. ... yeah. I have always been schooled in Spanish, so a class in English, although I'm fluent, was strange. So I got the just of the class, I actually caught on pretty quick to what was going on (we were learning the molecular structures of the many different types of Vitamin A, including the way the light works against the retina and whatnot). So that was an okay class.
Next was Histology. Now, first of all... the teacher sucked. And everyone knew it. Actually, literally about two thirds of the class didn't even stay for the class. But it was interesting enough for me. His method of teaching was a bit tiresome, but I managed to salvage some information from it anyways.
The next class wasn't until three... Can you guess? Yep. Anatomy. After chilling around the city and campus for a couple hours, I met up at the lab with Michelle, and went in. Now, the first thing that hit me was the smell. Have you ever smelled formaldehyde? Yes? No? If you have, you've probably smelled it dissolved to 1%, perhaps a little more. Now imagine enough to conserve TWO cadavers, plus all of their internal organs. Yeah... Now times that by 10, seeing as I'm very sensitive to smells.
Yeah.
I had to step out just for a couple minutes before I passed out. Gradually I became accustomed to it. And I'm sure that if I was there long enough that I would get used to it. But the first whiff was awful.
So the cadavers were pretty interesting. Because of the fact that I got there at the end of the semester, they were all already sliced open and dissected and whatnot.  Basically it was just... a body, and all their insides. I don't know if it's really messed up, or if I'm emotionally strange... but it didn't bother me at all. I was able to look around and poke through their thorax and intestines and I got to hold a couple hearts and "play" around with some of his organs (yes, I was wearing gloves.). But all in all, it didn't bother me. Sure I was a little disgusted, but how could you NOT be?
So, pretty much the entire trip was neat. It was a nice view into the medical life. And because of it, I was able to realize that I DO want to be a doctor, but there's certain things I'm pretty sure I don't want to do. Such as study at that school (for various reasons of my own), become a GP, or even a neurologist. But I guess that's what all this is about, right? Figuring out what you're meant to be, and getting a head start on it.
I'm very thankful for this experience. It was definitely one to remember.

"I see dead bodies"

xD (My Mom's only conditions to let me go were 1- to get permission from my school, and 2- to post that as my facebook status when I got back. lol)