First Day Fail

Several fails from today...some funny, some not-so-funny:

1) My class this semester is in the ghetto. For those of you who are locals, it is five minutes away from ABIA. Not only does that give you an idea of how far I have to drive, but it should also give you an idea of the surrounding digs. The facility is old, and the lab looks ancient. I realize that, so far, I have been spoiled in the quality of environments in which I have learned.

2) While I was waiting for the professor to arrive this morning, I overheard the following conversation:

"So, uh, does anyone know what this class is all about?"

"Um, I just know that I need it to complete my nursing program thing...I think it's pretty pointless."

I almost fell off of the bench I was sitting on. Thank goodness there was a large, startling, taxiderm-ized (taxidermied?) wolf immediately to my right, which scared me almost equally, but would have at least broken my fall.

After that moment, I became even more grateful for crappy pre-requisite classes, for those are the classes that weed out the "future nurses of America" from the REAL future nurses of America.

3) Same person who asked if anyone knew what this class was about ALSO told the professor that the liver is a part of the urinary system...because it breaks down waste, y'know? I almost wept at that point, but was pleased that the professor didn't rip him to shreds and feed him to the taxidermied wolf outside the room.

4) To make a long story short-ish, I wound up having to drop my Physiology class immediately after coming home from Anatomy. It isn't "illegal" to take them concurrently, but the professor is against it, and wouldn't allow me to stay enrolled, despite my protestations of previous science classes (including A&P I many years ago). This sucks on many levels, but mainly because it prolongs things even further in terms of being able to apply to a nursing program. I talked to K about it at home, and explained that for the next several semesters, I will be taking one class at a time, because you can't take Physiology until you've taken Anatomy; you can't take Micro until you've taken Physio; you can't take Pharma until you've taken Micro, and so on and so forth. After awhile, K suggested that I look at several four-year BSN programs, since it will be at least three more years before I have my RN. This is a really attractive idea to me, since that would give me more options in the long-run, in terms of what kind of nursing I could do. (RANDOM ASIDE: Did you know that a nurse anesthetist, with a minimum-required education of an MSN, earns, on average, $146,000 PER YEAR?!?!?!)

So really, only four fails today. Four isn't bad, and if I look at the bright side, this means that not taking Physiology equates to more study time for Anatomy. Another win for today comes from the fact that my professor actually seems really good. She tried to impress upon my class how much WORK this class will be, and walked us through a "typical" lecture and lab, and all of its sundry preparations and tests. Come September 28th (my first exam), I just might be thankful that I only have one lab science to worry about, instead of two. I also really like the fact that she is encouraging us to study the material in many different "active learning" ways. She seemed far from the moster I read about online yesterday, and instead, more like someone who has been doing this for many years, and has reached a few conclusions about what differentiates a successful student from a slacker.

I'll give you three guesses to figure out which category I'm going to fall into, and the first two don't count.