I Touched a Brain And I Liked It

At the end of June, I finished my Anatomy lab and lecture courses. Yes, during the summer, compressed into just 8 weeks! It was difficult and exhilarating all at the same time, and I loved it.
Before starting it I was both really nervous and really excited - nervous, because this is pretty much the first class I've taken that is totally related to my future school/career so if I don't like it or struggle it's bad news, and excited because it's finally a class totally related to my future career! And also, cadavers. I could have taken the intro A&P classes at the local community college, but I paid a zillion times more to take it at the university where there's a cadaver lab, and it's slightly higher-level (this is considered a pre-med course and the other is pre-nursing).
I will admit, the cadavers were also a part of the nerves going into this class - I've heard the horror stories of people who just can't handle it. Even though I have never had an experience with a cadaver, I just felt like I would be fine with it. I mean, I was the child who once told people she wanted to "put makeup on dead people" for a living. Let me be clear, though - I have seen a dead body before. I have been to open-casket funerals and have literally watched a loved one die - so when I use the word "cadaver" I mean it strictly in the medical/educational sense. And I think that's why I was fine with it. Being able to learn from the real thing is infinitely better than looking at pictures and models. Understanding what is going on inside the human body is such a rush, and I am so eternally grateful these people donated their bodies for this. It's true, you can't help but think about the life the body on the table before you had, but every time I did I imagined they were probably in the science field, formerly a geeked-out anatomy student themselves, giving back to the world by coming full circle in front of a new class of future MDs and PTs and PAs.

See? Just a weird squishy thing.

Now for the best part - holding a human brain! It's heavy. Yes, like the weight, but also, the feeling - that of holding in your hands what essentially gives us life, personality, thoughts, stories, memories, and thinking to yourself, "that's it?" Every bit of the human experience, all stuffed inside this dense, smushy, grey organ. Like I said, heavy.
Heavy feelings aside, it was a great class. It was a lot of work, especially crammed into half the time of a regular semester, but it was fun. Luckily, I also did very well. And regardless of my future career aspirations, it's just really cool to learn about the stuff that's going on in your body everyday. I think everyone should have to take anatomy, even just the basics. It makes you appreciate your body, think about what you put it through and put in it, and even appreciate other people more - because at the end of it all, we're all pretty much the same on the inside.

"Hey, Harry, there are brains in here, ha, ha, ha, isn't that weird, Harry?...Honest, Harry, they are brains — look — Accio Brains!" - Ron Weasley