The one where everyone else's life moves on and mine's stays still

When you think about it, school is like a time capsule. The world tends to pass you by while you are in it and there is nothing you can do about it.

I noticed this for the first time when I was in college, one moment it was orientation week and the next it was Halloween. Before I knew it, the facebook invites for the various Halloween parties were waiting for me. (This was also when I found out what "appropriate" attire for college girls was at Halloween parties, but that's the topic for another post) This did not shock me too much because the first semester of college was pretty much a haze for me due to too much fun/not enough studying. Now I was aware of the lapses in time that seem to occur in college and when winter break showed up without any mention of thanksgiving in the middle, I was ready for it.

So what? What if time does fly by, is it really that big a deal? In the real world it probably wouldn't be but such is not the case in the bubble of school. In the real world, events happen that tend to be of great importance to the populace. This is known as "news." College kids, especially those that are dorming, have no need for such trivial information. If it doesn't pertain to that upcoming kegger or the next exam (maybe), then it doesn't really matter. Besides you need either an Internet connection or a TV to get the news and yours are too busy being used for facebook or Call of Duty.

I know, I know, you think I'm exaggerating this. Maybe, but not by much. For proof I submit to you this embarrassing but very true series of facts. On August 29, 2005 Hurricane Katrina landed in Louisiana and proceeded to wreak havoc on the citizens of the Bayou state in a manner unseen before, or since, in hurricane history. I heard about it due to the hurricane relief concert where Kanye West famously called out President Bush for "hating black people." I did not watch the concert (which aired on September 2). In fact I was unaware of the full extent of the damage caused by the hurricane until somewhere around the end of September when I went home for the first time. My sister picked me up from my dorm and we drove home and along the way we stopped for gas and I noticed that it was $3/gallon. When I had moved into my dorm a month ago, it had been $2.30/gallon. I asked my sister why the crazy jump in prices and she looked at me like I was a moron and explained quite clearly that the hurricane had cause gas prises to skyrocket. When we got home that day I went online and saw the Kanye clip and read the news reports of the damage. It took me a full month to realize that a MASSIVE natural disaster had occurred in our country. A month! And I was not alone.

That is the power of the bubble of school, it shuts out the outside world almost completely. Couple with that the already latent ability of school to speed up time and now you have a time capsule.

Unfortunately that was back in college and since you are reading this blog, you know that those days are already behind me. In medical school the time travel effect gets multiplied by a dizzying amount and time just flies by. Furthermore, because of the massive amount of work that you are doing, the bubble is extremely strong and even less of the outside world gets in to you. As a result you have a very very powerful time capsule and before you know it, the world leaves you behind.

I found out the effects of this not too long ago when I found out that my college roommate was engaged. That news in an of itself did not really shock me, he had been with his fiance since long before college had started and I was expecting the news at some point. No the actual shock came later on that day when I thought about all of the marital/life events that had occurred in my friends' lives in the short time that I was in medical school. To date now: numerous people in my high school class have gotten married AND had kids, some really great friends of mine from college have gotten married AND have had kids, and even some the newest friends that I made in medical school have gotten engaged/married in the past year and a half. Meanwhile whats new in my life? Absolutely nothing, in fact if you swap in August, 2009 for December, 2010 you will find exactly the same person.

That sucks.

Clearly the world is moving on without me and will continue to do so until I leave this super powerful time capsule, and even then who knows. All I know is that I want out of this perpetual cycle of study/exam/party. I would love for someone/thing new to come along and change this up for me. Until then I will forever remain the slightly chubby nerd who spends his free time reading Discworld. Hmmm...maybe its not that bad...