08/01/2004 12:10 -0500 GMT

Insomniac Student

Now I can't sleep. I can't sleep, and I've developed a slight upper respiratory annoyance, probably from shaking too many hands over the last week. I have to admit it - I am nervous about starting up anatomy on Monday. It's Sunday morning at 12:10 am, and I keep thinking about the first incision in medical school. I'm excited, absolutely, but I'm also nervous about it. I'm nervous about managing my time effectively, and about getting all the information in. I'm nervous about not severing a tiny, white, thread-thin nerve that I'd like to be able to trace back to it's bifurcation. I'm nervous about personalities emerging as we begin to compete for grades and places in our class. These are ridiculous worries, minute worries that in the grand scheme of things will matter very little, but I'm losing sleep over them before classes have even begun!

Our class has a terrific collection of people. There are bright people, with terrific social skills who have interesting experiences, varied interests, and a lot of growing up to do too. Not a bad thing, just less life experience than yours truly. Then there are others whose young age belies a remarkable sense of wisdom and presence. And there are some who are just at the right place at the right time. All is well, and here we go.

Willie Harper is an African-American dude I've seen on the basketball courts in Bell gym. We interviewed on the same day, and it was good to see a familiar face. I remember saying that it would be fun if we both made it through together, and we did! I have a feeling we'll learn a lot together.

Jamie McKinney is a slightly older student, married to Michelle with a nine month old baby. He lives north of Birmingham, and had a few nights last week where he had to get up about every 40 minutes to tend to his son, taking turns with Michelle to do the parenting. I guess sleep deprivation will be old hat for Jamie. Jamie is part of our five-person dissection group in Anatomy

Ashley is married to Justin, and did a straight shot through to medical school. She has experience working as a sleep technician, which is what Justin does now. They and Jamie and Michelle got married within a few days of each other. Ashley is part of our Introduction to Clinical Medicine Group.

Daniel is from Fair Hope, and was first mentioned to me by his buddy, a dental student who worked on one of my teeth not too long ago. He's a good guy, and part of our dissection group.

Lashonda McIntyre goes by Shonda. She was an all-American athlete in high school, in the long and high jump events. She's part of our dissection group. We haven't had much time to talk as yet - just met on Friday.

Jody is a big guy whose been a paramedic for a while in Cherokee, I think. He's got some pretty interesting experiences as a first responder to medical emergencies. He related one story about a guy who was faint, then coded. Jody tubed him, but an internal defibrillator kicked in, and the same guy whose heart had stopped actually signed his own papers when Jody left him at the hospital. Jody's part of our dissection group.

Paisley is one of the youngest and brightest of my classmates. Her name is Rachel Paisley, she's married to Cameron, who works as an intern at Baptist and Montclair. Rachel and I took an instant liking to one another. We thought we represented the two extremes of our class in terms of age - she at age 20, and I at age 36. We had a laugh about that, and have teased each other incessantly about it with "Youngster" and "Old Mac" since. We've also learned that there are younger students than she, and older students than I in our student body. I have a feeling that this youngster is going to go far in whatever field she chooses.

Anup is the true youngest in our group. He's a very easy going dude, just hanging out and doing his thing. I took an instant liking to him, like I did to Willie. I don't know why - just one of those things where you get along well.

Mark is a smaller sized dude with a cerebral quality. He described research to me while we were at the Baron's game in a way that was detailed, clear, and showed that he had a real aptitude for it. I bet he would be make a great academic physician. I had trouble remembering his name at first, but now it's Mark, and I won't forget. In some way, he reminds me of my dad a little.

Ryan - I had Ryan pegged for the beach. He's tanned, rested, and ready, constantly smiling and confident. I bet he gets far not only with his intellect but with his ability to make people feel good. Ryan was in our interview group.

John Hunter was in our interview group, and made it through. I keep wondering if he is any relation to Alan Hunter or Eric Hunter, or Kelly Hunter.

Mike is a guy from Brooklyn who went to Tufts, and who I learned went to high school with Kobe Bryant. Mike was a freshman when Kobe was a senior. Mike reminds me of Omar Epps.

Brandon is married to Brittney. Brandon was a pilot, and was going to begin training to fly jets, but learned that some of his color vision was deficient for jet fighter training. Fortunately, he has medicine to fall back on. Brandon was instantly likeable - just a warm dude.

Christian Savoire was in our interview group. Thursday night, it struck me that he reminded me of Dudley Reynolds, and I instantly liked him even more. He is from Baton Rouge, and has a distinct accent that I think places him from that area. I don't know anyone else from there, so I can't say for sure. I think Christian will will be a very conscientious, well-balanced physician.

Adam McDonough is a cool, interesting dude who studied at seminary, and found that he wasn't convinced about God. Anyone who makes that conclusion, as I describe it, is ok in my book. Questioning faith is much more noble, in my view, than following it blindly. Adam also has a very interesting manner about him. I would think he was from California, perhaps because he comes off cool, or because he has an ability to make people comfortable, and he's worked his charm on me. An interesting cat, Adam is.

Austin is a man's man, an athlete who I was told played four years of basketball at Rhodes college. I bet if we get an intramural team together, we'll have a great team leader in Austin.

I sat next to Rob Martin on my left and Wes on my right, during the first orientation session. Wes wasn't too talkative, but Rob communicated easily. He enjoys hunting and fishing, lifting some weights, spending time with his girlfriend. Rob was the first person I met in my class after we all came together.

Simee is an MD/PhD student who is interested in structural biology work. She is from Nigeria, and may have some interest in working in HIV.

RosaBella is from a village that overlooks lake Victoria in Kenya. She has the unique shoulder musculature of a swimmer, broad massive shoulders without great definition under the skin, but massive nonetheless. We talked for some time about African politics and customs and HIV. She is a very likeable individual.

There are also Mary Kinney, who I believe will have a strong competitive spirit in her studies, and Mary Evelyn, who studied broadcast journalism and science, and struck me as an outgoing, easy-to-like individual.

Kevin Bevis worked one floor above me in the Bevill Building, with the Wertz group studying virology. A colleague already!

Shaun Batty was a guy I instant messaged when I saw he left his handle somewhere on the web. He introduced himself and asked me if I was the guy who messaged him. I was, I said, and we solved that little mystery.

There were others, from New Hampshire, Alabama, Mississippi, and other locales. Names and faces began to swirl around in my mind, and I unfortunately lost track of some identities. But we have a nice four year period to get to know one another.

That's it for now, folks. I think the insomnia is wearing off a little, and hour later. G'night.