The semester is finally drawing to a close. With all the med school apps, essays to write, and work to do, it definitely wasn’t one of my easier. It’s been one of the best, however, thanks in no small part to meeting such a wonderful girl to spend each day with. Although the classes this semester haven’t been the most strenuous, they have definitely stretched me in some new ways. Most notable among them has been my Literature and Medicine class, an Honors Colloquium. When I showed up to the first day and was given a syllabus, I was taken aback. Every single time I walked in the door, I was expected to hand in an essay, the topics of which ranged from “Write about what it might be like to give birth” to “Discuss an issue of medical malpractice present in the readings.” This added up to well over 30 essays that had to be turned in for this single class. I left that first day disheartened— could I really handle such a requirement?
34 essays and a term paper later, I guess I survived. I really did enjoy the discussion that went on during class, most of it being so topical to my future career plans as a physician… it was just a lot more writing than I’ve ever really had to do for any sort of class. I guess that should be expected from an Honors course.
Sidenote: our Honors curricula requires that you take a certain number of courses that are designated “Honors”, from any discipline you like. Most of these courses are smaller than their corresponding non-Honors section, and most are GenEds (Music, Art, English, etc.) Having come into the University with credit for so many of my core class requirements, most of the Honors offerings simply weren’t available to me. I came into this semester realizing I needed one more class. What were my two choices? Honors Meteorology, or Honors Accounting! I picked Accounting simply because it sounded easier, but boy what a waste of a class that does nothing to prepare me for much of the real world.
Today in Lit/Med, the professor held up a small print of a painting that he had gotten at the Shanghai Museum while he was presenting at a conference in China. He decided that we should have a vote to decide “who among your peers has taught you the most while in this class” this semester. We passed around papers to ballot, and the top three stepped out of the room “until the white smoke signalled that the voters had decided.” I happened to be one of those three, along with a professional writing major and an English major. Together we represented the Literature and the Medicine, surely. When we came back in, I found that I had won this little prize! Rather flattering.