robot-heart:

Is it that hard to believe that the cognitively abled could be so happy, too?

i’m always pretty happy. also i bit dumb tho…

and you’re always pretty.  ;)

but seriously,

The Plastered Smile Kills Me

i am guilty of thinking the same; i am really creeped out by these people, these mentally unstable, who smile ALL the time.  there must be something wrong with them; there just has to be.  i mean, sure, be happy, be polite, fine, but the plastered smile kills me.  

there was a girl like this in my PA class whom i really wanted to throw a pie at her smiley little head.  i had my general surgery rotation with her and the chief surgeon was german and a very no-bullshit, get-to-the-point sort of man.  one day he randomly asked on rounds “WHY do you have the patient hold their inspiratory breath when removing a chest tube?!” and several of the PAs and MDs on rounds opened their mouths and he immediately said “NO! I want one of the students to tell me!” and the sea of white coats parted to me and capt smiley pants.  she started blabbering and smiling and my god did the chief want to crush her.  she didnt know the answer but didn’t want me to take the glory either, so she stupidly spewed forth some sort of bullshit.  she did this because in the past, in the safety of lecture hall, no one would really call her out on it because of this SMILE, this scary fucking piece of sunshine and cupcakes and unicorns.  no one had the heart to tell her to shut the fuck up.  (she wasn’t always wrong though, she was actually pretty smart, but that smile killed it for me.)  anyway, our german chief (he had a really thick accent) was not having it.  ”shut your mouth if you don’t know the answer! dont waste my time!”

my god.

it was glorious.  

the smile twitched a bit, tears mounted.  ”i .. i ..” came out.  he looked at me and i said “to maintain negative pressure, sir” and he actually smiled.  ”mein gott, a student actually knew something around here! maybe you aren’t useless.” and i dare say, i think she stopped smiling after that. well, at least until the rotation was over and we were back in lecture hall for the exam.  but it was a few weeks where i actually think she was human.  maybe surgeons are alright after all…   

(originally written 20 June 2009)