“No, I’m sorry I can’t right now, but maybe later? You see, we have an exam coming up…”
If I had a 2-pence for every time I’ve said that in the last few weeks, I would be able to buy enough coffee to keep myself awake until March — which would be helpful, because you see, we have an exam coming up.
This week is Wellness week at Easter Bush. Actually, we talk about the importance of mental health and wellness a lot on campus but I think the difference is that this week some clubs have provided food as well! A good school/life balance is incredibly important and necessary. I have to admit that thus far I have been pretty terrible at finding that balance. I am more of a blender by nature. (Side note: this may be why I love milkshakes so much.) I like the ways in which my life and the subjects I am interested in all intersect. For example, aspects from our anatomy, physiology, and even statistics studies of late, have infiltrated into my every day humor. Do not worry, I am going to try and tone down that reflex for the sake of my friends’ mental health. Conversely, I guess I try to see a lot of the poetry I love in the dense subjects we study. This can sometimes make revision seem less like work and more like discovery.
Sarah Kay’s poem, “The Universe has already written the poem you were planning on writing,” explains what I mean better than I ever could. She talks about how the world is filled with wonder and how when that wonder hits us our lips form an O as we begin to say “of course.” My most recent “of course” moment came from our ruminant digestion lectures. Calves are born with a very small forestomach. Since they only drink milk (and you do not want to ferment milk!) they need a way to compensate. When a calf suckles then, two folds in the rumen wall contract to form a bypass tube which takes the milk directly into the abomasum, the equivalent of a simple stomach. Of course. Of course.
Sarah Kay also talks about a moment when a murmur of starlings were flying such that their overall shape looked like a giant starling — a bird made up of birds. Wellness week has made me realize that we too are birds made up of birds. I am a baseball bird, a classic movie bird, a kickboxing bird ….and the birds go on and on. Wellness week reminds us that we have to take care of all our small birds, because they are what give the larger bird shape. Like I said, finding this balance is not something I am great at yet. I am trying. I mean, I will try. I can’t right now though. I’m sorry. You see, we have an exam coming up…
