November 20, 2003

Today’s biology midterm made me feel incredibly incompetent and stupid. I stared at my paper for well over an hour, and I became a bit more depressed with each question I couldn’t answer. Chelicerae? Madreporite? Clitellum? I had no idea what any of these words meant, far less what their function was, so I ended up answering embarrassingly few of the questions on the test.

I’m taking first year biology, and the kids in my lab are all incredibly bright. The girl next to me made up catchy tunes to help her memorize the entire nomenclature. She sang them out in the hall before the midterm and everyone was in awe. She simply loves the stuff and you can see it in her face.

Five years ago I too used to be excited about everything — new knowledge titillated me. Since then I’ve grown lazy and lost my enthusiasm. And now that I’m around a bunch of energetic first-years, I’m forced to put my life into perspective. Compared to these kids I feel old and tired: I know only a heap of broken images …