Grades! And, uh, fetuses.

Got my grades for this first quarter... Holy crap! I am a genius! In English I got a 3.5. In Biology I got a 3.8 and in Math I got a 4.0! GPA for the quarter was 3.78, which means I'm on the honor roll.

I'm so proud of myself!

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There was one thing that happened last quarter that I didn't write about. A five minute time span in which I possibly should have been disturbed or saddened, but I wasn't. To those who might be sensitive about death and babies, be warned.

In bio we were learning about animal development and my teacher offered to let us see the school's collection of, uh, fetuses. I have no idea how to make that sound less disturbing. Our School's Fetus Collection! Not that they showed them off in front of company or anything like that. It was All In The Name Of Science. There were unborn babies of all stages of development, from one to eight months gestation. The fetuses were either miscarried, or the mother had passed away, and the parent opted to donate the remains. Our teacher let us decide whether or not we wanted to see them.

I did and I didn't. My inner Christian School Girl went, "Ew, dead babies, gross!" My inner nerd thought it would be fascinating. I decided to go because some day I will have to deal with death, miscarriage, and stillbirth and this was my chance to dip my toe in the water, so to speak.

So a small group of us went to see. And there they were. They looked just like the pictures I've seen for my doula courses. Several jars lined up for our inspection, each containing a woman's child who didn't survive to be born. From arm buds and gills to perfect little fingers and toes and ears, there they were. And while others were sad for those lost lives, some trying to connect this experience to abortion, I was... Well, I was curious about their stories. I wanted to know what happened, why they didn't make it, who they were. I grieved a little for their parents, for the loss they experienced. Mostly, though, I felt grateful. I recognize that is an odd emotion to have around dead babies, but there it is. I was grateful to those parents for, in what must have been an extremely difficult time, giving us students a chance to learn.

It was extremely fascinating, I have to admit.

There it is. I saw some fetuses. I didn't cry or get emotional or nauseated. It was an interesting experience and that's that.