After all the preparations, applications, examinations, the move to a different city, the search for a boarding house and purchasing bedding, mattress, hangers, bathroom stuff and all the things needed in a new place, for a new experience, in a new school (phew, I can still recall all the trouble just to get started in medical school) I was ready for the first day of school. Honestly, I didn't doubt my attempt at this demanding course nor did I doubt my ability to finish it. I had some friends who were not really intelligent or studious, but who made it. So I reasoned out, "if they did, I can do it."
I scanned the large hall that held all 85 freshmen. As usual I found my place at the rear half of the room and laid low with a very observant eye. I realized that I wasn't the only hillbilly among the bourgeois-looking and sounding throng. There were some ladies who looked too sweet and some who looked a bit advanced in years. Hmmm, I mused to myself - this could be an interesting year. After a pause for introductions - Mr. Cullamar, a physically well-rounded guy with a funny bone, rehearsed us through the policies of the school and what was expected of us. His jovial approach actually broke the ice, and when break time came the mood was light and we didn't have trouble getting to know each other.
Time and again in my life I have proven that when new to a group, to just trust my senses and in a few days I'll be in the right circle of friends for my temperament and attitude. With such a demanding course ahead of us it was not difficult to find the right rhythm among my classmates and in no time I was in a core group of friends that has lasted up to this moment.
After a day of orientation, securing lockers, introduction to the stinking cadavers and the school staff we hit the second day running. I mean, the lectures started and the shock waves came one after another. Our teachers figuratively threw the ultra-thick and ultra-heavy textbooks at us, and at the end of the day we realized that medical school had more work at home than in the classroom. The race to catch up in reading all the chapters covered by all the subjects for the day started at day two and without let-up ended the night before final exams 10 months later.
There was one aspect in the first couple of months that I had quite a struggle with, and it was partly due to my being a hillbilly among the decent and well-bred city dwelling classmates. How do I react when a voluptuous sweet-smelling classmate snuggles up to me and without much ado sits on my lap and asks me to go through the different parts of the human anatomy that was the lesson for the day? Another would put her arms around me while looking over my shoulder and ask me to teach her how to identify the parts of the cadaver. This was too stressful and I wanted to go home to my mama in Bukidnon.
At any rate I was getting to like medical school (most especially Anatomy) as the days unfolded until group study was invented.
That will come next.
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