The People Have Spoken

The results are in! I will be the First Year Class Vice President! I'm super excited. It is the first time I have ever been voted into something. It is an awesome and slightly humbling experience. I am flattered that the majority of my classmates believe in me but humbled at what they expect from me. There isn't a ton of stuff I can mess up as the VP but I still feel responsible for representing our class in a respectable way. So, a new chapter starts in medical school. Now we can track a class officer in medical school (me).

Another awesome thing is that the Secret Society of Study Stuff (SSSS) is coming into form quite nicely. We have 14 contributing members, 2 peer-review consults, and a few people ready to contribute to only one subject of their choice. If you are foggy on the goal of the SSSS see my first email that I sent to my class.

KCOMers,

I have been kicking around an idea for how to make med school studying easier and more fun (original, I know). I want to try something, an experiment. With all of the different study guides, spread sheets, drawings, etc, that circulated before the last couple of tests, I had an epiphany. I know that there are those among you that share my love of making study guides, diagrams, and anything else that feels helpful. I want to join forces to make study materials for the rest of the class. You know that you are already going to make them yourselves, why not form an alliance with fellow study guide makers?

Advantages:

• We can have a small group, the Secret Society of Study Guides, to check each other's study stuff, offer suggestions, and refine the stuff before we send it out to the rest of the class
• We will offer the study materials as a packet a day or two before a test rather than several random emails the night before the test (although that may happen in addition to our packets, thus allowing for sudden bursts of creativity).
• Combining the different types of study materials. All of you study guide makers will have your own style and there will be a fan base for your particular style. Putting them all together gives all of us the ability to see things from new perspectives, ie I love to draw and I will most likely create monsters that represent the cells in Histology and Immunology so we can think of them as something goofy, hopefully making it easier to remember.
• I will most likely make a t-shirt to show our unity in the society. It will be like a gang. Like a gang of nerds with spreadsheet and hierarchy tattoos.

Disadvantages:

• You will most likely be more popular.
• You will have to study a little earlier than just the night before the test in order to make the "cut" for the packet.
• You will be helping others beat you on the tests and they will ask you what you got on the test expecting that you did really well but you actually bombed it and should have studied that one section better so that you could have not looked like a tool in front of the kid that beat you.
• You might start to think that run-on sentences are funny.

All in all, this is an experiment. I think it could be super cool and really helpful to the rest of the class. We are all in this together and we might as well help each other out, ya know?

SO... if you are interested in becoming a part of the society, please respond, offer suggestions, etc.

Have a lovely weekend.

I sent a few more emails after that but the tone of the emails has stayed the same. It has been a big hit round these parts. I'm having a ton of fun getting to know everyone. I feel like I am finally in a situation where my personality just fits and I can make a big impact for the better.

The academic side of school is picking up pace despite what I believed to be possible. Anatomy is getting heavier in my mind. We study anatomy by a regional model, meaning we study all the structures in specific regions, i.e. the thorax, the back, upper limbs, etc. It is a great way to learn but it amounts to a ton of information and a short time to learn it. I am pushing myself not to just learn it to get an "A" but to learn it to make me a better doctor. It's a very different feeling than from undergrad. Cramming just doesn't cut it, ethically.

Dissection is still the best time of the week, however, it does get overwhelming when we have four hours of stuff to dissect. I start getting antsy!

I just thought I would get those few updates out there in the blogosphere before I go to bed tonight. Keep leaving comments! It makes me feel like people actually read this stuff!