Today marks the first day of classes at the University of Chicago. First-year med students are done with their two-week orientation by now, having received long white coats and made several dozen superficial friendships. Second-years begin learning about disease processes and finally start to feel like medical students, although I’d posit that the toughest thing about the beginning of the second year is remembering the names of those classmates whom you haven’t seen or even thought about for the past three months. It’s always an awkward time of the year, having to say, “Hey…man,” to every third person you walk by. The second-toughest thing is probably coming up with interesting variations on the theme of talking about others’ summers. Changing it up from “How was your summer?” to “Good summer?” to “Jesus, it is so hot out right now” is more difficult than one initially expects yet never really suffices. Pathology and immunology, then, come in at a distant third.

Also, the rest of campus starts classes today, so the population within a one-mile radius of me just got a whole lot weirder and more socially awkward. Good thing I’m totally normal!