arch nemesis

awhile back my friend sara convinced me that everyone has an arch nemesis, that certain someone who you always seem to find yourself in competition with, that person who just kind of ticks you off merely for being in your space... perhaps because that person may remind you a little too much of yourself.

i have two arch nemeses.

i'm not going to lie. i am very VERY competitive. so, trying to get into the nursing program was just an exercise of my very nature. but i was not the only one out for a little exercise. it seemed like a lot of students were exercising their inner-selves. it was a breeding ground of arch nemeses.

i have only had one class so far with my first arch nemesis. i don't even know her name, although i have this sneaking suspicion it's sara, which just knocks her arch nemesis stature up a notch. this girl does not even know who i am. i always sat behind her and i only talked to her once, briefly. the reason that she is my arch nemesis is because her face used to be plastered all over grand rapids. silly, i know. but there were probably 700 billboards around town displaying her pearly whites. i got very sick of that billboard. prior to getting into the program those obnoxious advertisements reminded me that i needed to get better grades than her. the kicker was that one of the billboards towered over my place of employment. every morning when i drove to work i had to pass her face.

most of the billboards have since been replaced. and i got into the program. so, my feelings towards arch nemesis #1 have changed (a little). i've heard that she made it into the program too. only time will tell if we will remain nemeses or become colleagues and friends. i think we'll be ok as long as no new billboards go up around town.

arch nemesis #2 has been in almost all of my classes. he is around 40 years old, blond, tan, handsome. he is wicked smart. and he can really get to me. he's the type who will nonchalantly wander over to you after a quiz or test and ask you how you did. or, after the grades have been returned, he will ask you what you got as if it is his right or business to know. there came a point last summer that i just started telling him i got an A, even if i didn't. i knew it freaked him out. strategy.

last night, #2 struck again. it was right before our pathophysiology quiz, if you can call six chapters covering the inner workings of cells, innate and adaptive immunity, inflammation, chemical balance, and hypersensitivities a "quiz." most people were studying their notes frantically, trying to shove that last piece of information about dendritic cells into their brains. i was tired. i had just come from my stats lab where i had been hunched in front of a computer for two hours. i decided that trying to cram was pointless so i decided to eat my peanut butter sandwich instead. i strategically placed myself across from the blond.

after a short while he gathered up his pages and pages of notes and approached me. "here it comes" i thought. "are you ready?" he asked. i said i guessed and took a big bite of my sandwich. he then proceeded to ask me the longest most complicated question i have ever heard. he included about six pages of notes into that one question. i couldn't decide if he was asking it to try and show me how much he knew or if he really was wondering what he was asking. i honestly had no idea what he was talking about so i decided that he was just showing off. when he was finished asking what sounded to me like, "blah, blah, blah, MHC receptors, blah de blah, chemokines the same as cytokines?" i just had to shake my head and say, "did you just ask me something? was that a question?" he tried to re-word for the sake of my simple mind. finally, i had to stop him and reduce him to pictures. i drew out what i understood MHC receptors to do. and as far as chemokines and cytokines being the same thing, who cares? just know what they do.

i thought my drawings were pretty amazing, but they were greeted with a "...but...but..." i told him that if our professor was going to get THAT picky on a 10 point quiz that covered six chapters, then we were all screwed. i took another bite of my sandwich as he started his next question. half way into his mumbo jumbo of patho lingo i had to interrupt him and ask him to go away as he was starting to confuse me. we were both laughing good-heartedly as he walked away, but i really meant it. he was starting to make me nervous. and that is why he is my arch nemesis.

luckily the quiz went down without a hitch. i wondered if my nemesis realized that he had studied way too hard as i wiped the sandwich crumbs off the front of my sweater.

at the end of the day the blond is probably a lot smarter than me. and he will probably be a great nurse, as will the girl on the billboards. i respect them both very much. but their roles as "arch nemeses" are pretty important. they keep me on my toes. they challenge me to do my best. they push me to study just one more hour on a saturday. in fact, i believe that it is because of them that i even got accepted into the nursing program!

from here on out we will work side by side. and i'm sure that they will continue to push me to do my best, even if they are unaware of it. and i hope that in some small way i will do the same for them.

you know what they say, keep your friends close and your enemies closer. -sn