Flash Back

This fall, I've been helping out with the application process. That is, I've been showing interviewees the campus, letting potential students follow me around for half a day, answering emails and questions, etc. Most of the time it's fun. Right now, though, we're in the middle of a particularly rigorous block. Something about trying to learn all of the internal organs while still taking six other difficult classes makes for some pretty stressed students. As such, everyone in my class, even the kids who are super smart and have their stuff totally together, are starting to get sort of strange, manic, and loopy. This became most evident when a fellow student and I were giving a tour of the campus and spent five minutes showing the interviewees the fish tank.

Granted, it's a neat fish tank. I stop there at least once a day to look at the gorgeous fish that the marine science majors (undergrads) work with. They are a nice respite in an otherwise hectic experience. This is an experience, though, that I would not have understood a year ago. Had some med student spent five minutes showing me the fish tank, I would have thought they were bonkers. And maybe we are. In a year's time, maybe these same applicants will be doing something similar as a first year med student. They'll suddenly realize that they've spent five minutes at a fish tank or a grove of trees. And then they will understand.