it's amazing any of us have even made it this far

because so much can go wrong at any time.
our bodies are so ridiculously complicated. i have a test tomorrow on the thoracic region, which includes the heart and lungs and some other parts. tonight my study group and i only got a chance to cover the heart. we reviewed for almost 3 hours until our brains were gelatinous gooballs, and the crazy thing is that we still had so much uncovered material and questions about how things work and why. it seems pretty straightforward at first--your heart pumps and sends blood throughout your body, carrying oxygen and other important stuff. but oh, how i could go on and on and on until each and every one of you cried with amazement at both the intricacies of the human circulatory system and at my vast knowledge of the subject...

i will say that it's pretty neat to learn stuff and then realize that it's happening to me all the time. in order to not burst into flames i went running after my study group just a bit ago, and it was pretty neato to think about all the stuff that was making it possible for me to do so. and what's even crazier is that there are people who study this stuff their whole lives. they invest their entire careers studying how the heart works and looking at millions of them and researching stuff--but they still never really get it. because we are fearfully and wonderfully made, and so many tiny things affect every piece of us all the time.

as much as i hate the struggle that school can be and how it can make me feel so stupid and small sometimes, it's really such an awesome thing to get to be here and to spend my time learning really cool stuff.