Med Overload

Recently it has come to my attention that far too many of my friends are med students. In fact, a large proportion of my close friends are in some way involved in the health sector. I know what you are thinking; "Surely there is nothing wrong with having friends who are particularly useful!". And I agree, in fact with every friend who graduates from med school, the amount of time that I plan to spend in doctor's offices decreases. Unless it is something highly personal, I may never go to an arbitrary doctor again. Some would call this exploitation, but I like to think of it as encouragement.. or out of hours professional training. Surely my uncoordination and fairly high injury level hasn't been in vain. I could offer constructive criticism, such as "By golly your hands are like frozen metal prongs that seem to pierce my skin, you should do something about that". And they could offer me constructive criticism, such as "You really shouldn't longboard down a steep hill when you haven't figured out how to turn, slow down, or stop yet". Ain't that the truth. Anywho.. as beneficial as all of this may seem, there are certainly downfalls to having friends who are employed by the health division, or who are involved in this area of study. And I am not just talking about the bizarro med jokes that you just KNOW are lame even if you have no idea what half of the words mean. As mentioned above, the risk of abusing the knowledge of useful friends is a very real risk. This would of course lead to my useless friends becoming jealous (you know who you are). Jealously is never fun. Another negative is that discussing one's personal medical history suddenly becomes a perfectly reasonable thing to talk about amongst everyday conversation. And maybe it is, if you have a normal medical history. I, apparently, do not. I have broken the cartilage in my ear by bouncing a basketball into my chin, swallowed a pin (I was in primary school, don't judge me) and have had my ears pinned back (Dumbo comments will be ignored), just to name a few. I get the sinking feeling that these are not topics that normal people would discuss at Hungry Jacks on a Sunday night.

Which brings me to the next downfall; complicated med jargon/conversation in general. Now please don't get me wrong, the human body is fascinating, and I really do love hearing my health friends excitedly talk to me about whatever they are currently learning! But once you put a few health people together, the lingo/terminology runs wild. The conversation often turns to health related topics during Tuesday night Bible study. My only input during these discussions is nodding when I hear words such as 'blood', or cringing at words such as 'needle', because they are usually the only words that I can comprehend. However these conversations have been a wonderful time of bonding for Carla and I, who, as two of very few non-health students in the group, have shared many eye-rolling and head shaking moments.

Despite the downfalls that come with having friends who are med/health students, I am sure that there are many negatives to having friends who are ECE students. For example, I had 9 contact hours a week last semester, which no doubt would have infuriated friends of mine who had 30 hours or more. I'm sure that it would also be frustrating to hear that our tutorial activities have been known to involve manipulating blocks and beads, making collages, drawing pictures, making posters and watching Summer Heights High. That said, the ECE degree isn't all fun and games, it has certainly been hard work. I am very thankful that God has made each of us entirely different. We all have unique gifts and abilities, and that is such a wonderful thing! To all of my med/health friends, I love you all dearly and wouldn't swap you for 1000 arts students! :)