Separated at birth? and med school.

 

Inara Serra (actress Morena Baccarin from Firefly) and the cover model from the latest Knitty (Olivia Foppiano).

Discuss.

* * * *

Cathy-Cate asked how Andrew did in his first semester at medical school. I am happy to report that he passed all three subjects:

• biochemistry (barely);
• epidemiology (with a high score; he studied for the final by tutoring others. He liked epi a lot);
• anatomy (painfully).

Happily for him, the first two years of med school are recorded in the transcript as pass-fail, so his struggles with biochem and anatomy are recorded nowhere but in his brain. He says his problem with anatomy was was it was 100% memorization and that the course was essentially self-study. Pure memorization with no logical associations -- like there would have been if anatomy were combined with physiology, the study of the functions of the anatomical parts; some med schools do that but not Mt. Sinai -- he found to be boring. But after having his confidence shaken severely by failing the anatomy midterm*, he worked very, very hard to be sure he passed the final.

* I haven't checked this factoid with him, but I think this is the first time in his life he has ever failed anything academic. He phoned home in the depths of despair after he found out his below-passing grade, sometime in October, I think. I told him that failure was inevitable at some point -- no one wins forever -- and I don't think he wanted to hear that. But dealing with failure is a lesson we all must learn. Better he first learns it now in a school course than with a patient in the field (although that is inevitable, too).

* * * * *

Go read Heather's knitter's Christmas poem -- it is most excellent!

A merry Christmas to all -- may the Christmas faeries watch over y'all and your knitting!

Comments

[Cookie]

They are both lovely.

Perhaps this taste of failure will inspire him to work harder, so it doesn't happen again. Or something.

xo

[Jeanne]

Wow! They do look quite a bit alike. And both so beautiful.

I hope you and your family have a fabulous Christmas!

[soxanne]

Separated? Perhaps. Pity I don't know what Firefly is.

As far as the first failure - too bad it didn't happen earlier for him - would've made this one easier (although it doesn't sound like he failed but rather that he came close).

It reminds me of when I used to screen high school kids for AFS (study abroad) and we were real worried about the ones who had never failed because they were going to fail when they ended up overseas ... best to file it away and move forward ...

Love the pics from the airport, btw.

Merry, merry.

[Chris]

Merry merry to all of you!

And I think you're right - that's probably a very good lessen to learn right at the beginning of the med school process.

[Sheepish Annie]

Failure is a gift, albeit a painful one. I've learned more from the times I didn't measure up than from the times I sailed through. That, of course, does not help one little bit in the moment...but years later I'm grateful.

Merry Christmas to all and an enjoyable break from all things academic! Let's all just sit around and think about nothing...

[Heather]

Yes - failure is a part of life. And thankfully, he passed his courses. I think anatomy is designed to be painful...we have way too many innards to learn them all in one sitting!

[Vicki]

Merry Christmas to you and your family!