At the start, it was
Crisp
Like the sound of a chilled cucumber
Snapped in half briskly on a hot summer day
Fresh
In the novelty of all things
A foreign state with foreign friends
A foreign box to call a home.
With time, it was replaced with
The reek
Of persistent formaldehyde
Clinging to every pore
And every item owned
(despite relentless efforts to sterilize and compartmentalize)
Its phantom stench in almost every aroma perceived
(whether imagined or real)
Like
The way medical school had become a way of life
Instead of
Just one of the things we do.
And as the formaldehyde settled in
Noses learned to readjust to its background presence
Minds became accustomed to chronic weariness
And dopamine pathways permanently hooked onto the pleasures of tea addictions.
(or simply caffeine, caffeine, caffeine — to each his own)
The appreciation of the small reliefs in life became essential
(treasure, oh, treasure the small things in life)
Like the comforting aroma of milk and Earl Grey
Or the dusty familiarity of Things From Home
Or even that aseptic cleanse of the winter snow.
But mostly, it is that fuzzy
Perfectly humidified air
Mixed in with the embers of last night’s drying tea leaves
Where the most comfort is found as
The rest of the senses succumb in a cradle of
(smooth, rhythmically rocking)
beta and theta waves.
Medical Student Editor and in-Training Staff Member Emeritus
University of Florida Fixel Movement and Neurorestoration Institute
Nita Chen is a current movement disorders fellow at University of Florida Movement and Neurorestoration program. She is Class of 2017 medical student at Albany Medical College. To become cultural, she spent her early educational years in Taiwan and thoroughly enjoyed wonderful Taiwanese food and milk tea, thus ruining her appetite for the rest of her life in the United States. Aside from her neuroscience and cognitive science majors during her undergraduate career, she holed herself up in her room writing silly fictional stories, doodling, and playing the piano. Or she could be found spazzing out like a gigantic science nerd in various laboratories. Now she just holes up in her room to study most of the time.