Learning curve.

I love the juxtaposition of my Wednesday classes.
I spend the morning in chemistry, parasitology, anatomy, and literary criticism, eat a quick lunch, and zoom to a senior class in pathogenic microbiology followed by an anatomy lab.
Literary criticism is a nice interim break from my sciences; my mind flips a tangible switch to bring myself from discussing reaction kinetics, neurocysticercosis, and cartilaginous pathologies to quoting Joseph Conrad for a description of Thomas Mann. I feel more intellectual when comparing archetypical patterns described by Carl Jung and Friedrich Nietzsche than I do the life cycles of Taenia solium and Taenia saginata, but I'm happy I get to participate so fully in both.

Pathogenic Microbiology is as difficult and over my head as ever, but I absolutely love it. Trying to comprehend and apply systems, responses, proteins, and pathways I've never heard of puts me on a high comparable to nothing else--it's entirely insane. Interestingly, my love for this class is not tempered by the fact that I am a total non-factor in discussions; usually, I comment, question, and/or challenge, but in Patho, I keep my mouth shut. Through listening to my brilliant senior classmates, I'm slowly picking up the complexities of immunology, though I have to look up even the simplest notation every time I read current research.