MONSTER MODULES

Monthly Community Service Hours Completed: October 0 hours

Cumulative Fall Semester Hours Completed: 1.5 hours

    October, a month filled with candy, pumpkins, and fright. Often having a stomach ache from snacking on way too many ghost-shaped peanut butter cups, your arm getting sore after carving the biggest pumpkin you could find, and feeling your heart race while watching that classic Halloween horror film. So many “feels” accompany this season and after completing the neuromuscular, autonomic nervous system, and cardiovascular pharmacology modules, I feel as though I have a better understanding of what I am experiencing and how my body responds to the “spooky season” environment.   

    This month’s course load was heavy considering the complexity of each module; however, beginning with muscle and progressing through to cardiac conduction, it laid a good foundation that ended with the full understanding of the processes that allow our bodies to relax and eat candy or run from the monster in the cornfield. I found memorizing the different receptors of the ANS system the most challenging during these modules. However, I began to enjoy imagining which receptors were being activated and responding to the stimuli around me. I look forward to November’s modules, and finally, after repeating “rest and digest—fight or flight” many times while studying, I end the month with hearing “trick or treat!”