Three good things - Part II

I had a great day today because three good things happened. I'll cover them in chronological order. This is the second one.

At the moment we're learning stuff about inheritance and chromosomes and such things. It's been a bit wild and woolly for me so far since I have absolutely zero background in biology. I've never studied it at all, not even in high school. I am of course aware that we have chromosomes, and that they are kind of X-shaped, and that they are somehow related to DNA. But that's about it.

So it was a pleasant change of pace today to spend the entire afternoon, including a free sausage sizzle at lunch time, talking to families from the Down Syndrome Society of South Australia. We were plonked in groups of 6 into rooms with the families and given two hours plus to talk about anything we liked. No tutors, no guidance, no oversight, no agenda. It was great!

I was expecting it to be a bit awkward, but (in our room at least) it all went really well. The mother and grandmother of this little boy with Down syndrome and his little brother were there and they were really open and friendly and happy to answer all of our foolish questions.

I really admired the way they weren't fragile or defensive about Down syndrome and its consequences for the little boy and for them. She told us that if she'd known her baby had Down syndrome before he was born she would probably have chosen to terminate the pregnancy, but now in hindsight she's really glad that she didn't have to make that choice because she loves her son so much.

It takes a strong person to be able to sit down with strangers and bare your soul like that. But as she said, she's had to do a lot of growing up very quickly since he's been born. She'd been through an awful lot in the past few years but her attitude was incredibly positive and optimistic. Inspirational stuff.

This medical course is only four years long and we're constantly hearing about practical classes that are no longer done or lectures that they had to cut out because there simply isn't time or funding for them any more. So I'm really pleased that the medical school thinks that this kind of touchy-feely stuff is worth doing and that they are willing to put in the effort to organize it and also have a bit of faith in me and my Esteemed Colleagues to make the most of it.

This course is tops.