SUNY Downstate Medical Center - Iatros Yearbook (Brooklyn, NY)

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i tory of the Class of 1969 Afew leaves crackle under your feet as you walk along the sidewalk. It isn't very far from your dorm room to the basic sciences building, but, oh, you feel like a prisoner walking the last mile-both of you are going to meet your destiny, yet neither knows what lies in store for him. You stop on Lenox Road and wait for the light to change. Upper classmen, in their sacred short white jackets, stand beside you murmuring medically and you envy their professionalism. One or two fellow freshmen now approach and you all share a brief second of anticipation and anxiety over your impend- ing fate. The light changes and now you are part of a phalanx of tender young sacrifices to the god Cadu- seus. As you turn through the gateway towards the jaws of mother Medicine you stoutly resist the impulse to turn swiftly around and run for your life, but rather, with head erect and shoulders back, you enter the basic sciences building ready to prostrate yourself on the altar of altruism and dedication to mankind. You walk up the escalator to the second floor Clater in the year you will learn that the up escalators work only between two and four A.M. on alternate Thursdays though the down escalators always are working? As you turn down the hall toward the anatomy section the fragrance of formaldehyde teases your nostrils and you wince imperceptibly. Now down to business. You snap open the cel- lophane wrapper on your snowy white laboratory coat and it feels good as you slip your arms into the sleeves. You button the front slowly and then care- fully open up your new dissecting kit and set it down on the work table. Finally, the moment you have been anticipating apprehensively has approached. You tense a little but firmly take down the top of your table and face your cadaver. All the fears and fantasies which have previously gone through your mind disappear and the first reality of your medical school life has been learned. You are not shocked nor nauseated by the sight, but rather realize that you have a serious trust being invested upon you. From today on many men and women will be putting their bodies into your hands with wholehearted faith in your ability to heal them. This first day of medical school has wrought its small change in you and as 33

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you begin to work, a little extra care guides your hand and deep concentration holds your mind. From green to brown and then red to yellow, the leaves turn colors and die while the autumn days pass. The novelty has worn off and below this veneer is the rough, corrosive surface of the day to day grind. Your eyes are bloodshot, your back stooped and your fingers eternally wrinkled from formaldehyde. You exude an odor which compels your mother to avoid you and your once spotless laboratory coat is now irreparably stained with a multicolored array of insoluble substances. You have never worked so hard as you work now to learn Anatomy and when you find you are catching up you remember all the work Bio-chemistry has given you to do. One of you has already quit school but you hang on with the optimistic hope that things must get better because they certainly cannot get any worse. ef! 34 One day, while you are sitting in the lobby of your dormitory floor, a friend rushes off of the elevator, screaming exultantly, The Anatomy marks are out . . . and I passed!! Your cardiac rate doubles and your sweat glands go into overdrive. All thought of studying is gone and one question permeates your mind: did I pass? You walk, half running, to school and go up the escalator steps two at a time. As you turn towards the bulletin board, however, sudden paralysis strikes. Your legs wonlt move, your body is frozen. Slowly, painfully, you maneuver the fifteen feet to the bulletin board and slap your hand over the marks which are around your number. Little by little you let your fingers slide down until, with one courageous move, you face your fate S S. Now you are a quivering lump of protoplasm and relief fills you as the day looks a little brighter than before. fi.-if