Last night I studied neuroanatomy until I started feeling a strange fondness for it. (“Aw, look – the spinal trigeminal tract again! Bless its heart, it just keeps going out of its way.“)
Then I woke up surrounded by flashcards and with the vague sense that I may have studied myself into some alternate universe where neuroanatomy makes sense, because I still feel like it’s fascinating.
It’s like there’s a magical switch that gets flipped 3/4 of the way through memorization – a switch that makes you realize how everything acts in relation to everything else. This must be what drugs feel like.
(Did I finally lose it? I don’t know.* Possibly. DARE to keep kids off neuroanatomy.)
But as long as I feel this optimistic, I’ve decided to declare today to be International Brainstem Day. Maybe that’ll keep me in the right frame of mind to dedicate today to all the neuroanatomy lectures I’ve been avoiding.
(Actually, I was originally going to only suggest that someone official should declare this holiday. But then the internet told me that yesterday was Wrinkled Raincoat Day**, and I decided I have to have at least as much power as that person did.)
(Let’s face it – the founder of Wrinkled Raincoat Day was probably a frustrated fashion school student posting on their fashion school blog, and then some “Weird Holidays” website put it on their calendar and legitimized it through the magic of google.)
I bought you a new holiday, and it's AWESOME.
… Speaking of being legitimized through the magic of google: just in case some holiday-cataloguing website owner does come across this page, I’d like to assure you that this is Totally A Thing. I didn’t make it up at all. It’s heavily observed in Metropolis. We have.. traditions, and everything.
For example, traditional gifts given on International Brainstem Day: Coffee, unsentimental cards, and sympathetic looks.
Traditional International Brainstem Day activities: Memorizing the brainstem.
* Yes. The answer is “Yes”.
**Plus, according to the same website, today is apparently National Student Day, which is practically International Brainstem Day already, right?.
Action Potential 
🙂
Wow. And I’m not on call, either. I’ll have to celebrate by drinking a Diet Coke or something.
The most important question about this holiday – if it falls on a weekday next year, do all med students get the day off?
Haha I’d totally celebrate that!
Oooh…if today is International Brainstem Day, then I can take a stat day for being on call. Thanks!
‘Beyond the Zonules of Zinn’ is a fun look at neuroanatomy along with a bit of history as well. Probably a little basic for you, but there are some good stories there.
Nerd.