I'm doing path right now at the Kaplan center, and the guy is absolutely terrible. Nicole and I both agree - every single pathology professor we had on the island was better than this one, who, apparently, teaches at some top ten US med school. I sit and listen to him drone on and on, yammering endlessly about how the color of butter changes because cows eat grain in the winter and grass in the summer, and I can't help but feel like my time is being wasted. Kaplan's been pretty good to me thus far - but this is incredibly annoying. Pathology is supposed to be the most high-yield subject for this exam, and so far, it's the worst Kaplan has to offer. Thankfully, the BRS is awesome (although, I'm a little miffed that a new edition was released just after I purchased mine), and much of my review material is full of notes from when I was studying for the Comp.
Anyway, it's days like this that make me realize that I'm very lucky to have had some of the professors I had, even though I had to go to the ends of the earth to listen to their lectures.
A funny thing happened to me today - these kinds of things used to happen all the time, but something changed (I don't know what it was) in the past few years. Things in the distance have been blurrier than I like (it's just nearsightedness and not macular degeneration - I diagnosed it myself. I can do that. Sort of.), so I've been making sure to rest my eyes by going out onto the balcony and staring off into the distance. I was doing just that today, when two young women passed on the opposite sidewalk, and one of them shouted up to me "You look like a model!" I shouted back a thank you - maybe I should wear scrub pants and t-shirts more often. I'd say that they were attractive young women, but let's not forget what I was doing out there in the first place.
On another note, I think this country has got it all wrong - the Senate just voted to dump another $50 million annually into abstinence-education. It's just about the most asinine thing imaginable - you can't legislate away an evolutionary imperative, especially not when the target population has a mind-numbingly feeble grasp of outcomes and consequences. Instead of wasting all of that money, which really ought to be going towards something useful, they should let teenagers know how it really is - I've copied below an excerpt from a letter sent to Prudence at Slate.com.
"Annapolis, Md.: I have recently found out from a very good friend of mine that she has herpes. She's had it for many years. She is sexually active and very attractive. She has a history of many relationships.
The problem is that she does not tell her boyfriends that she has herpes. I sometimes get introduced to her partners and feel sorry for them. My friend does not tell them about her condition because, in the past, when she has told them (usually after they exhibited symptoms of herpes themselves), they no longer want to have anything to do with her. She wants very much to get married and feels that, after she is married, she will tell her new husband when the time is right.
Her excuse for this is that the "major" part of the population already has herpes and just doesn't know it. My respect for her as a friend has been weakened ever since she confided this to me.
Here is my question: The next time she introduces me to a new boyfriend, should I give him the news that his new girl is herpes positive ... or just stay out of it? "
Prudie's response isn't the important part here - it's that there are millions of people like this! I wouldn't tell kids not to have sex - sure, I'd share with them research about the emotional changes tied to certain ages, various cancer and pregnancy risks, et cetera - but what I'd focus on, is this:
"You can get diseases from sex."
My crowd would murmur in agreement - actually, if I'm talking to young folks, there'd be a lot of nervous giggling.
"A lot of those diseases will stay with you for the rest of your life."
Maybe more nervous laughter.
"You can't look at someone and know if they have a disease...there may not be any signs at all."
Things would quiet down a bit; I'd look out over the crowd and see the wheels turning.
"The person you have sex with might not even tell you that they might have a disease. You won't know anything's wrong until you wake up one day and your privates are covered in painful blisters and sores, and you're wondering what the hell happened. Then you'll remember that this will never go away. And that's just herpes....that's not one that can kill you."
Dead silence.
Now...how can I get in on that $50 million?
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