A Cranial Vignette

Today, I had one of the most incredible experiences since I've started medical school - the dissection of the human brain. We didn't learn neuroanatomy, didn't focus on minute details - just took it out of the cranial cavity and looked at the cranial nerves and sinuses. It was hardly a dissection, took less than two hours.

I've been looking forward to this dissection for weeks now, and it was just as amazing as I was expecting. Since last night when I watched the dissection video, I was blown away that I was going to have the opportunity to hold a human brain in my hands, the essence of a human being. It's what makes the person who they are - allows us to see our world, feel emotions, make decisions, develop personality, form memories and so much more that cannot even be described in words. In some unimaginably complex form, I was going to get to hold a person's entire life and experiences in my hands. The hour before dissection lab, I felt as though I was meeting someone famous - someone who I had studied for four years during my undergraduate degree and was finally getting the chance to meet. I'm sure this sounds like unbearably overdramatic emotion for an anatomy dissection, but I am in love with the brain. I love how it contains so much more than just cells and macromolecules in an incredibly intangible way. I must've stood there holding that brain forever, fascinated and in awe. I will never be able to fully describe the feeling. I have not been so excited and fulfilled and touched by an experience in a long time.

We are so blessed to have the opportunity to study the human body with cadavers, and I thank the donors and their families for that. This was without a doubt the best dissection experience to date and likely will not be surpassed. I never expected to love anatomy, but it has thus far been my favorite part of this first semester of medical school. 

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