Well Shit...

I woke up late to a "Clinical Correlations" class today. Don't you hate the feeling of waking up late? This has happened twice today. I woke up yesterday around 1:00 thinking I had only 15 minutes to get to my final patient interview (the only graded portion of the class). I threw on my clothes, white coat, doused myself in whatever cologne was nearby, and was in my car within a few minutes before starting to drive away... when I realized...
'My interview wasn't today, tomorrow, or Monday. It was a WEEK from today!'

Today (Friday) was a bit different. Med school is a unique atmosphere. You don't have to attend typical lectures if you don't want to. Seriously, you can sleep in and watch them in the mid afternoon if you want (I don't do this, usually, except after particularly stressful tests). This is a blessing and a curse. It's a curse because most people who choose not to attend certain lectures must watch them on their own time on some computer-- the lectures you'll need to watch add up quickly. I find it's easier just to attend lecture in the morning so you get in the groove of waking up and watching the lectures later, that way the second time hearing it tends to make it easier for me to absorb the info.... (this is really nice when your info is, let's say, Biochemistry)

That being said, we do have the occasional required lectures such as test days, most labs have quizzes to take attendance and test your pre-labbing efforts, and we have special lectures called Integrative Clinical Correlations (ICC) that happen almost weekly and consist of a topic that we spend an hour learning about. Examples thus far include Lead Poisioning, Sickle Cell Anemia, and Gout.

I'm sure today's was equally interesting.

I woke up knowing I was late. That little flash of panic when the room is a little too bright. I checked my phone with a little string of hope. It read 10:48. The meeting was over at 10:50. I'm good, but not that good at getting to class at the last second.

"Okay, next step. I have to call someone." I grabbed my orientation folder and flipped to the page of Med School big-wigs. "Dr. Wanda Lipscomb?" I tried that one first. I rang and her secretary picked up informing me that Dr. Lipscomb was out of the office. "Can I help you with anything, though?" I explained my little, embarrassing story and she seemed confused on the other line, "did you miss a test?" "No," I replied (Thank fuck... that would send me into an arrhythmia). "Oh you want to call Lora McAdams. Let me transfer you."
Great. I want to call to fix this, not spread my reputation around.

"This is Lora". I explained again. "Okay, well I put the lecture notes and recording up on camtasia and marked that you have called. You just need to send a quick email to Dr. Roskos (the guy who coordinates the class) explaining why you were late this morning. So don't worry. And Jordan, you aren't the only one who missed it today. I know you guys have had a tough week today... two exams?" "Yeah, a few. (3 actually)" "Don't worry about it."

I think I picked the right medical school.