I was looking at people a few minutes ago, and got a little scared that each one had a skeleton inside. Like a real life horror skeleton, moving with them as they walked. Every time someone looked at me, all I could think of was a skull looking at me.
What happens if I see a bone in med school and freak out?
It's okay to freak out. Just remember to keep breathing and find your composure. Have you ever felt nervous, say on the first day of school or the first day starting a new job? Of course everyone (in general) has the 'heebie-jeebies' to some degree whether it be fear or nervousness when experiencing something new, unexpected, and in this case something you've never really thought about before.
I guess if I were in your position I'd be thinking, "Wow, I always thought of a person as covered in skin with hair on the head and eyes beaming personality," and not as a walking structure of bones covered in pounds of muscle with gallons of blood gourging through a body of moist and gooey organ systems. But really, a person is all these things - I'm not me without my personality, and I certainly can't have a personality if I can't breathe, walk, digest food, create and respond to stimuli, think... I'd have to realize that in our case, our skulls and bones are inherently a part of us that makes us human. Studying anatomy is studying myself.
It's important for good physicians and future health-care professionals realize ideas like this. We can't be afraid of ourselves, or any part of ourselves if our goal is to succeed in medicine. Maybe, the more we think about ideas like this, and the more comfortable we get (from experience: working, volunteering, academic coursework, etc), the more prepared we will be to face any fears we have when the time comes to take that human anatomy lab in medical school, participate in our first surgery, attend to a patient, and break the news (good/bad) to a concerned family.
Good luck!
