I can’t believe the semester is nearly done. It is already what I like to refer to as the ‘Limbo week.’ Limbo week is the week before the last week of classes before finals. We haven’t buckled down for studying yet, but exams loom over the horizon like a particularly obnoxious and malodorous pack of vultures, ready to peck at our brains at the first sign of weakness.

No, its not quite as bad as all that. The good thing is that it should be much easier to do six exams this semester, rather than the eight we had to do last semester. The only problem is that these subjects are harder than Med 2 subjects, in my opinion, and so the finals will be much more difficult, containing all the knowledge of the semester, which is a lot of information.

The nice thing about Immunology only having two exams is that you get done with classes of Immuno in the first three weeks, and are done with the class itself after the second mini, which is also the final exam. We would have seven finals this semester, it’s just that one of them was taken early on. Mind you, I’m not complaining, merely explicating.

More than previous semesters, this semester has been one where studying regularly every day is not just beneficial, but almost necessary. This is definitely true of Microbiology and Pathology I, as the amount of information, especially in the former, is exceedingly extensive. Yes, that’s how much information accretes – enough to make ‘exceedingly extensive’ justifiable as a stylistic choice. This I know with the benefit of hindsight. After all, hindsight is nine years in the future.

Anyways, I have been trying to spend this limbo week as fruitfully as possible. However, I should have known better. I don’t call it ‘Limbo week’ for nothing. It is almost impossible to make any forward progress while in limbo (week), and I remain here, floating in a void. It is better to float than to drown, I always say, or, at least, I will always say from now on. Most likely irrespective of the situation.

[Editor’s note: Sometimes his jokes need to be explained. Hindsight is 20/20, therefore it is nine years in the future from 2011.]

by Prakash Jayanthi, Class of 2014