A - Animal Anatomy

Fall semester of last year I found myself entering room 492 of the Widtsoe Building for the first time. Had I known then the inordinate amount of time and mental capacity that room would tax from me, I might very well have left right then, never to return. Thankfully I was oblivious, and happily took my seat.
Animal Anatomy is believed, among the very few students who have taken it, to be the hardest class taught at Brigham Young University. The curriculum is as rigorous as a human anatomy course put together with a tissue dissection lab... but the students learn the information not for one species, but for up to 10 very different animal species! Students taking the class spend 4 hours each week in class, and approximately three to four times that outside of class studying their brains out trying to remember such terms as "gastrocnemius" zygomatic arch" and "tragus." The kids in that class became my best friends since we spent nearly every waking moment together, helping each other do our best.
I became very well acquainted with Dr. Roeder, the veterinarian who teaches nearly all of the animal-related classes taught at BYU, during my time in animal anatomy. She would stay after class with me to answer all of my many questions, most of which were not directly related to the class, but just to topics she had mentioned in passing, or things I had just always wondered about. I learned enough from talking to Dr. Roeder outside of class to rival what I was learning in class.

Due to my insatiable curiosity, Dr. Roeder suggested I apply for a research grant. That lead to a semester of many adventures, including, but definitely not limited to, chasing pregnant cows around fields of 6" deep mud, cleaning rat hair with powerful carcinogens, and riding in the vet truck as it literally fell to pieces around me. The full story will have to wait for a different post.

After completing the course, (quite successfully I might add!) I figured my time in 492 WIDB was up and that Animal Anatomy had done all it could for me.

Then became the TA for the next batch of students who would come to study their brains out.

And the best part is...

I LOVE IT!

Four days every week, I go back and sit at that same desk with the same professor and new "best friends" around me, and I get to learn. I get to learn everything I missed the first time around without the stress of needing to regurgitate it for a test the next week. I get to explain concepts to the 22 students who depend on me to help them get an A in the class. I get to pull skeletons out of closets, put vertebrae in the right order, make sure the students feed their birds and rats, and I LOVE IT!

I have also continued on to take other classes, ones I didn't know existed until I spent a semester with Dr. Roeder. Thus I am currently getting credit to work in the vet's office on campus... and am loving every minute of it!

Who would have guessed that clicking that tiny little "add course" button would have led to so much knowledge and fun!

~Rachel =)