Parking and…Penguins?

Entry, Foot in Mouth Disease

Jason Collins, Mississippi State '13

A classmate of mine shared with me a metaphor that someone else told her; information that we learn while in vet school is like a penguin. Our brain is like an iceberg that can only hold so many penguins. As we switch between departments in clinics and are called upon to recall bits of information we learned 2, 3, or 6 months prior in unrelated departments, we realize that our iceberg has become overcrowded and we’ve “lost” some penguins. I remember knowing that information 6 weeks ago for a test but now I am loaded down with a ton of new information for the upcoming test! 

I usually feel like my capacity for memory is smaller than that of my classmates. I am not the only one, however, that has had to park their car in the same space every day for months out of fear of not remembering where they parked at the end of the day. This was particularly the case in the classroom phase of our curriculum, when I went to the same region of the building day in and day out. In clinics, however, when I arrive/leave and where I need to be changes pretty frequently, so I no longer felt the need to park in a specific space. I did, however, continue the practice of parking in the same lot.  

At the end of a recent busy day in clinics, I exited the building and, to my surprise, learned that it was raining.  It was not a downpour, but it was a steady blanket of rain. I walked quickly toward the parking lot where I anticipated my car being parked (1) and as soon as I reached the edge of the parking lot, without so much as looking up, I turned around and walked as quickly as possible back into the building. I had just remembered something important; I had parked my car on the other side of the complex that morning! A classmate of mine told me that I could park closer to the building if I parked on the opposite side from where my usual spot was, because most of the underclassmen were not back from Christmas break yet. I was only partially soaked when I re-entered the building and I proceeded to exit the building on the opposite side and walked very briskly to the location where I had parked my car that morning (2.) I could picture the exact parking space my car occupied. Unfortunately, when I arrived there, another car was in its place! My car was nowhere to be seen. Immediately I recalled that I had had a long lunch break that day and I had driven to my house for something. When I returned to the school, out of habit, I parked in my usual spot on the other side of the building! As I jogged back toward the building, I angrily thought about how completely drenched I was and I hoped no one noticed my pointless journey into that parking lot. Now that it did not matter how long I spent searching for my car in the rain, because I was soaked through anyway, I immediately spotted my car upon exiting the building on the other side (3. )

To this day, I blame this on the penguins for abandoning ship in my time of need. I also blame vet school for giving me so many dang penguins!