To some, February means red roses and dreamy chocolate. To university students (re: me) it means exams. Semester finals. The due date for projects. Sleepless nights. Because you’re studying. The anxiety keeps you up, I should have studied more. A few thoughts about finals that I don’t share with other people in my life who are also at University.
For an art major, finals means deadlines for projects. Finishing touches. Final meetings with Professors, and maybe an essay or two. (Think research and justification for why you painted it blue and not red).
Med students on the other hand have to memorise thousands of body parts in anatomy, how all of those things work with each other for physiology, understand chemistry, and the list goes on.
I took anatomy my first year of Bachelors’, I was tasked with learning how the bones and muscles looked. Looked.
The thing is, although I am an art major, I think I could easily study medicine. Big claim, I know. The only thing stopping me is that it’s gross. I don’t even want to know about the blood and the guts – much less see it.
At the end of the day medicine entails a lot of memorisation. I’m sure a deeper understanding of the specifics is needed, and hopefully bound to happen with enough study. But,but! Still a course of study that is achieved by many people who don’t even show up to the classes!
Bribery is nothing new. And knowing the right people has always turned people into doctors. (A good example of this would be just 150 years ago in Europe – doctors ran in the family, so if your grandfather was a doctor, so was your dad, and so are you, and then it will be your son, and his son, and you see what I’m getting at?) So while originally you had to have being a doctor in your lineage, today money can buy anything. Even medical degrees.
Perhaps I’m naive for thinking that this only happens in movies. Or in communist Romania. Or for degrees that aren’t as important. You know the one’s that don’t hold someone else’s life at stake? Am I being dramatic? Anyways.
Ah, maybe you’ve gotten somewhere… See I don’t think I could get a medical degree because of bribery. No. I genuinely think I, or anyone willing for that matter, can have one. It’s study, and dedication. And more memorisation, and more dedication. It’s showing up every day and saying this is what’s going to occupy my day. My headspace. This bone connects here and it does this. Etc.
I digress.
What I’ve noticed from my friends. Yes, the ones doing medical degrees. Is that they also wait until the last minute (2-3 days before an exam) to study. My trip (because I wouldn’t go as far as to call it guilt, I will not shame myself) was having 4-5 months to do a linocut project for my printing class and starting it a month before my exam date. For which I made the prints three days before said date.
MARIA MICHAELA 