The Pharmacy Chick

The coming of fall always makes Pharmacy Chick wax nostalgic to her college days. Already I am seeing Back-To-School ads and kids in the store haggling with their parents over backpacks (why do they need a new one every year?)  I have to be honest, it took me a good 5 years after graduating before I got over the feeling that I should be GETTING READY for fall classes. 

I remember my early days in pre-pharm:  agonizing over whether or not I would get the classes I needed (back then we had something called Arena Scheduling:  we were let loose in the gym like a stampede based on our last names into a giant arena with tables that corresponded with departments.  If you were smart you would rush to the classes you wanted/needed the MOST to sign up–first-come-first-served.)   If I was lucky enough to get the classes I needed, I would then hike it over to the bookstore to load up on the books. It was important to get there early for two reasons: 1) the used books sold first and 2) sometimes they ran out of the books.  If I had to buy new, it cost me more, if I didn’t get the book at all, I had a major problem.  Then at the end of the quarter I’d rush back to sell it back to the bookstore, for if they had enough they’d quit buying them back.  What a racket–they’d pay us squat then sell them for a lot more.

However once I got into Pharmacy school, 2 things changed: 1)  my books cost a hell of a lot more and 2) I couldn’t sell them back!  I had to keep them “for reference”.    This stunk on a whole bunch of levels.  Selling my books back helped me pay for the next quarter of books, and not doing so hurt my budget big-time.  In addition, there were seldom used texts I could buy, and it seemed every professor would pick some new edition  that would require the purchase of a NEW book. 

What pharmacy student didn’t have Goodman and Gilmans- The Pharmacological Basis of Theraputics?  I even had to buy a NEW Remingtons because I was “lucky” enough to be a student when they had a new edition.  By the time I graduated I had hundreds of pounds of books, from Chemistry (medicinal, general, bio, and organic), Theraputics, Pharmacology, Anatomy and Physiology, Law, kinetics, the Merck Manual, Grey’s Anatomy, Microbiology, pathology, and whatever -ology else I had to take.  I even had to buy The Principles and Practice of Medicine (as if you could condense it all in one book).

So, Pharmacy chick graduated, and along with her diploma, hauled all these books to her first apartment, then to her first house…then to her second house.  Once a year or so, I would visit the library upstairs and dust off the books. I didn’t however ever open them.  There was no reason to.  Every piece of information I would ever need in practice was accessible from reference texts at work.  But for some reason I couldn’t ever get rid of them.

Until one day.  Mr Chick and I decided to paint the Library.  It involved clearing the shelves and for the first time in many years, I had to handle every single book I had ever placed on the shelf.  At that time I decided to “thin the herd”.  Not only did I pitch some old books, but I cleared out a bunch of other stuff as well.  Goodbye went all the chemistry books,  the micro and path books, Grey’s anatomy, dosage forms (I think I got that one pretty well covered).  I have no idea what Goodwill will do with these books, but I thought donation was better than garbage. 

I have to admit however, I still have some.  I still haven’t opened them, but for some reason I still cannot say goodby to the select few.   Its kinda pathetic–how is it I cannot part with these few?  I wonder–does Ole Apothecary have some if his books molding in his bookcase?   Does TAP and TAestP have a secret stash of text books from their college days? Does Mike ever reference his old texts?

Well if they don’t, and they ever need to read up on Theraputics, I have Goodman and  Gilman’s….still.

Tags: cleaning house, non pharmacy stuff, olden days | |