Imagination...101

I have now acquired the basic tools of an artist: a portfolio, drawing papers, charcoals soft and hard, gum erasers, an artist's journal, and a penchant for brooding. This is all for the new art class I'm taking over at the Boston MFA, a class sponsored by the medical school here with the twin lofty goals of exposing us medical students to "thinking outside of the box" while "giving back to the community" in unexpected ways. The course concludes with temporary installations of our art pieces at a local health clinic, along with a few exhibitions at the school of fine arts. To think, I'm getting free studio art lessons and unprecedented access to the museum's resources and collections. I'm certainly not complaining...too much.

However, being told that I need this course to teach me how to be a creative thinker with the implication that, in general, medical students coming into medical school lack imagination is, quite plainly, insulting. For one, anybody who has applied to medical school will tell you the protracted portions of the application devoted to inquiries about one's life outside of the classroom, beyond the lab work and the 'clinical experience'. I remember interviews with questions about "the difference between morals and ethics" and "the meaning of life..." With questions like these, don't tell me that medical students cannot be creative if we passed through these tests of intangibles. Now that's not to say that our creativity is solely about how to best answer questions in order to get ahead. So many of my premedical friends do things for the sheer joy of it: play an instrument, act, sing, read, travel, write poetry...the list is endless. I, for one, love to paint. Are we really the strict-laced, book-worm, antisocial overachievers who really lack any imaginagination except for how best to fight tooth and nail to get the higher GPA? I don't think so. After all, the selection process was meant precisely to weed out these 'uninspiring' candidates. Doesn't the faculty know that? We did make it here by overcoming criterias that creates ridiculous things like those interview questions above while proving that we are well rounded participants of society. Give us a little credit, will ya?