Day 503: Back in School

By lara, lara@trippingonwords.com

 

Well, the post title says it all. I am back in school after four lovely years away from any kind of higher learning. Unfortunately, in those last four years, my attention span has shrunk to that of an ant. Literally. I do a page of reading and reach for my phone to text or grab my computer under the pretense of checking some fact only to end up checking my email. It’s pathetic.

 

But at least the classes are personalized and scintillating. I am in a class of 300 doing basic physics, another massive class of organic chemistry, and some bio class with an ichthyologist (I’m sure that is spelled wrong). Happily, though, after all this time away, any type of learning that isn’t prompted by some mad scramble to solve a ridiculous problem involving four AIDS orphans, a popsicle stick, three crayons and a desire to build an airplane feels new and interesting.

 

Take my physics class, for example. Physics is not all that fun. No matter how many Gary Larson Far Side cartoons the professor puts on the overhead during the class. But at times I rediscovered that little spark of learning we all know and love. Together, my class solved great word problems about how long it takes for two trains plummeting toward each other to smoosh the fly flying in between them. We did it out together. Normally, this would bore people to go step by step through the algebra we all mastered in sixth grade. But not me. The professor would announce that he was dividing by 0.25, and that was the same as multiplying by four. I gasped.  He cross multipled, I started chuckling at his cleverness to myself in my seat.

 

The people around me felt comforted that not quite everyone in the three-hundred-person lecture was a competitor for their med school spot. I felt disturbed that I had forgotten how to do anything mathematical but currency conversions in the last few years.

 

It is going to be a very very very long year.

 

4 comments:

sarah mac said...

congrats, lara! i hope this means that you are indeed going to be dr. lara...um...

Sunshine said...

Also, if there is a 'MCAT for dummies', get it, read it, learn, and ace your MCAT. I made one pathetic attempt to study for the MCAT and failed miserably (23), even with taking a course (though not a super-expensive Kaplan one).

WHen I went to go for the GRE, I said "fuck it, I'm just gonna buy a damn book and do it that way." Enter "GRE for Dummies." Tara and I were very disciplined in studying (at least initially). I ended up not taking it until 2 years later and, after only 1 month of crash-studying with my previous notes, a quick review of the book, and 1 practice test, got 1310. Not bad.

'Course, I am smart and all...

Seriously, get the book if possible. And good luck!

HalfPastMidnight said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

I think three and a half. Lara and Claire graduated in 2004, if I remember right.

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