What’s Normal, Anyway?

I was talking to my good friend Courtney from my home town the other day about oddities and how there is no such thing as normal. I couldn´t think of any of my abnormalities at the time, but as I stood in front of the mirror examining some of my superficial veins to try to identify them I realized many things that make me maybe not so normal. Having my nose buried in books for just a couple of months now has definitely made me into what many people would deem a dork. Ok, so maybe that started in third grade when I got glasses that were larger than the size of my face. Well, I have since gotten contacts and much smaller glasses, but I now have Post-it® notes around my apartment of some things I need to know for anatomy and embryology. As I go for my daily run, I now think about which muscles are doing what and which nerves innervate them. Also, I have apparently developed some sort of med school humor that does not translate into the outside world. I told a joke to my friend Courtney, and there was just silence at the other end. Really, it was a funny joke! The majority of the ¨social time¨ I spend now with my classmates is watching histology laserdiscs or lengthy videos of this British guy who sits with his legs crossed and a rosy red nose and very calmly explains every aspect of the human body. A last little change since medical school is that my big outing has become Barnes & Noble´s or Panera . . . to study of course! Speaking of which, it is Friday night and our next set of exams is a week from Monday, so it´s time for me to get ready for a big night out at Barnes!