My Little Doctor

Pharmacology class makes me think of Johnny.

In a way, I'm kind of okay with that. It means I have something to daydream about during the 3 painful hours of lecture every Monday morning.

I think he would love this class. In a few years, I mean. I love the way that kid thinks. I think it's partly because he reminds me of myself as a kid, only he's smarter. He loves the complexities of how things work, how the body functions, how to make something out of nothing. He can look at a pile of trash and see a completed project. He figured out he could run a string taut between two sticks to make a straight line so that his wall wouldn't be crooked.  When I was teaching the kids about the major organs in the body, he was always one step ahead, making connections that they others didn't even grasp at and asking questions that logically led to the next step in whatever process we were discussing.  I had to teach him about some of the accessory organs that the other kids never learned about because it was the only way to answer his questions.  He is both curious and brilliant, and that is a beautiful combination.

I know he's only a kindergartener, but I've got pretty high hopes for this kid. I'm itching all over to get back over there and keep teaching him.  He absorbed an awful lot of information in the 2.5 months that I was there, but I suspect he will not retain much of the science based material.  He simply doesn't use it enough.  I bet he picks it up again quickly, though.  He really loves to learn, and he loves to make other people proud of him. There were many times when he would finish a worksheet or a book and say, "Auntie Meghan, I did it for you!"

Maybe I'm a little biased (yay science yay!), but I think he would make a simply fantastic doctor.  He wouldn't have nearly the bedside manner that Chola would have, and he doesn't have Queenie's natural compassion and protectiveness...

Still, that doesn't mean he hasn't shown those attributes many, many times.  And he has a tenacity and a sense of justice that might just convince him he can make a difference in the world. Lord willing, he will never outgrow that. But I digress...

Look at his face here. He's pushing in on the lung to see it deflate.

Photo credit Zeger Van den Broele

He probably had no idea this one was being taken. He's hard at work building a fortress.

Photo credit Zeger Van den Broele

He asked why I sometimes gave him medicine when he was sick and sometimes did not. This led to a discussion about the difference between bacteria and viruses. He's asking if the spot on his left arm needs antibacterial or if his white blood cells can just eat the germs.

Photo credit Zeger Van den Broele

 He usually plays pretty independently if he is making or building something, but every once in a while he would grudgingly allow one of the little ones to play with him.  He wasn't always exceptionally happy about it, but...

Photo credit Zeger Van den Broele

I gotta say, folks-- I really miss this kid.