"The only time we should look back to yesterday is to look at the positive things that were accomplished to encourage us to do better things today and tomorrow."
Stevie Wonder, Musician
We really got into the plastinated specimen today. Plastination is a process where formerly dissected cadavers are then subject to the process of replacing water with plastic. Same process that the "Bodies" exhibit is in the U.S. They eliminate the need for real cadavers and exposure to the formalin or some such solutions that the bodies are bathed in. I'm sure that this air can't be good for the lungs, but a mask helps.
Besides immersing ourselves in a quasi hazardous environment of the anatomy lab, I cannot imagine approaching this exam week without the knowledge and experience of patient care. I look around at my colleagues and wonder how it is that they make sense of it all. But then I remember me, a PA student, many years ago with that same excitement and amazement. I know this is the first time that many have seen the inside of the body, and experienced testing on a formally alive person. A shock for many in addition to the intellectual challenge.
But without the clinical connection, it is an assemblage of facts and figures, angels and layers. The clinical discussion are definitions and have no real basis without the experience of patient care. Again I find myself so thankful that I've had this stuff before and can relate it to someone or something I've seen before. That experience has truly encouraged me to do better things today and tomorrow...all positive things in my history.
Let us not look back in anger or forward in fear, but around in awareness. 
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