Above: Semester 1, November 2007, studying in the Dominica Anne Ross Library.
After hours of studying, and creating flowchart after flowchart of material that I still haven't got a gist of organizing, I look up at a giganormous mural of Mary Shelley, Walt Whitman, and some author who goes by Melville (sorry, I'm not a literary major, so all this does is remind me of Dominica's Melville Hall). As I stare with loads of information floating through my head (the loads of pharm, for instance, I've been going through lately), the mural, with its oil-like paint renditions of the three authors / thinkers seem to stare back at me with serious, yet welcoming expressions. Sometimes, though, I get so caught up into a staring contest with them that sometimes, it seems that they're whispering back in my ear, saying...
"ATTENTION BARNES & NOBLE CUSTOMERS... WE WILL BE
CLOSING IN FIFTEEN MINUTES."
I turn around and nobody's there. I think the PA system was feigning the voice of a low-fidelity impresison of a college-bound Walt Whitman. I'm back in the real world, sitting in the Cafe of my local Barnes & Noble (the latest thing open in the suburbs conducive to my studying). I look at my watch: minute hand at the three-quarter mark, hour hand about to hit the tenth notch on the dial. Then I grab my books, and I'm out the door.
I'll admit there's truth to "setting the mood." As I've turned into a "Medical Nomad" over the last several weeks, going from library to library, bookstore to bookstore, I've learned that being surrounded by stacks and stacks of books, pamphlets, magazines, etc. that are abound of information and by people who have a thirst for knowledge (even not medical) really helps me achieve that same thirst. That's one of the main reasons I can't exactly study at home: surrounded by a comfy couch, a big screen tv, cable internet, and a loving mom and dad (they definitely deserve credit)... I've declared home as a refuge for relaxation... and of course, typing up blogs.
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