08/28/2004 02:32 -0500 GMT

What I'd Like

Yeah, alright. So it's been two weeks.

I don't know quite what to say here that could possibly encapsulate everything that we've been doing in medical school over the last two weeks. It's a mish-mash of heart and brachial plexus and upper limb and chest, and back and nerves and arteries and a depth of knowledge that I don't even have a close grasp about, in the whole.

Huh?

What the hell is going on? That's the feeling that I've got going on right now. I'm excited and interested by the knowledge we are presented with each day, but I am still trying to figure out how to get it all into my head on a daily basis. Fortunately, we, being my fellow students and I, are all expressing the same confusion. Save for a few that may be on top of things, my circles of peers are trying to figure out a system that will enable us to get and keep the facts that define all the structures that make our bodies circulate blood, feel sensations, monitor environmental stimuli, and get the juice from point A to point B.

As confused as that sounds, that's how confusing it is.

I'd like to write about other things, about a film that will be shown in Birmingham about AIDS work in Zambia, and about how Maggie and I have been laughing quite a lot in the mornings lately, and about catching a SlimFast when I can't get a meal. I'd also like to write about Willie having his truck stolen out of the student parking lot, and about Brad Coker jumping way high to block two of my shots during a game of 21. Of getting ready to teach undergraduate anatomy starting Tuesday, and that being for the grand sum of $7.50 per hour. I'd like to write about not cutting the grass for the last three weeks, about the slight satisfaction of passing my first round of exams, though just barely really; a pass is still a pass. I'd like to tell you that I love what I am doing, and I revel and marvel at the opportunity of learning medicine. I'd like to cut my hair and see my parents and get the Southern Firearms web site developed more. I'd like to see my friends and get out of the Volker Hall study carrels for a while. I'd like it if the University Center had a reasonable meal for less than five bucks. I'd like to have seen some of the Olympics, but I am grateful for having watched Lance Armstrong win his sixth (in a row) Tour de France. I'd like to play in the Alabama State Chess Championship next weekend, and I'd like to get back to Zambia as soon as possible, with Maggie & Esther, and with the ability to apply the knowledge I am gaining.

I'd like to get Mwelwa into school here in Alabama, and I'd like to see Uncle Norris joking around more. I'd like to learn to fly, and I'd like to be able to speak Arabic, while we're at it.

Can I get a cure for AIDS with that?

For now though, I'll be very very satisfied if I get this disjointed business off my soul and out into the ethernet, so I can continue on, get in the study carrels tomorrow for some fine study of the heart, the thoracic cavity, the lungs, and all that they entail.