C-minus is for anatomy

By ANDREW VO

Until now, all I have had to report are the mostly positive tales of my first-year experiences at Chapman University.

I now have seen the other side. It’s called anatomy.

Off the high of my fun and successful first semester, I decided to enroll in this class. It isn’t a requirement for my pre-med major, but I decided to take anatomy as a sort of resume booster for my med school application. It seems that the idea has backfired.

After a half-semester’s worth of exams and quizzes, I calculated, with some dread, my grade. It’s a C-. Ouch.

I wasn’t expecting to breeze through this class with little effort or without prior experience. We read about 200 pages of material in two weeks, followed by a 60-question exam. Sounds pretty typical of what I’ve encountered so far in college.

But I didn’t expect to struggle either. Maybe the most valuable lesson this class has taught me is that professors are like students. We have different learning styles, and they have different teaching styles. My style and his style just don’t mesh very well, apparently.

My first test was disastrous. For the next test, I read through the materials for a fourth time. My grade got lower.

At least I have the confidence in myself to know this is an aberration. Some people have suggested to me that maybe I had made a mistake entering college at age 15. Maybe I wasn’t mature enough and not ready. This is my biggest pet peeve.

It really gets on my nerves when someone tells me, “You’re crazy for graduating early,” or, “If I were you, I wouldn’t have wasted my life like that. You missed out on so many things.”

Every time I hear these statements, the first thing that crosses my mind is, “I’m sorry, have you ever had time to sit down with me to get to know me?” People jump to conclusions when they don’t even understand who I am or what led me to attend Chapman University at such a young age. The more people I meet, the more I hear this. I didn’t come to Chapman University to earn the next spot on a gossip magazine; I came to learn.

And last time I checked, education was supposed to better you, not ruin you. Except for anatomy, I feel way better off.

I haven’t decided whether to drop this class before the deadline on Friday or if I will muddle through. I am going to have lunch with the Chapman chancellor again in the near future and will ask for some guidance in surviving challenges like this that come up over the next three years.

Aside from the current purgatory that is anatomy, word got out that there was a 16-year-old honors student at Chapman University, so someone from the Panther, the campus newspaper, interviewed me. Here’s the link: http://www.thepantheronline.com/a-e/freshman-16-driven-to-college-early-by-passion-for-medical-future-1.2827704#.T4JlI5pSRsA if you would like to read it.

My other news: After communicating with the professor who offered me a research position, I will be doing the internship in the summer when my schedule is much less hectic.

I just finished my spring break; the much-needed relaxation time was great. I enjoyed every moment of it, but time goes too fast, and the next round of exams begins. With just six weeks left, there’s a small feeling of optimism in me saying it’s almost summer, but the rest of me is dreading the next anatomy class.

Until the next time. It looks like I’ll be really occupied for a while.

Former child actor Andrew Vo recently turned 16 and is a freshman at Chapman University. Follow him on Twitter @VoAndrew for updates ― when he has time to tweet.