my way of seeing

When I entered the Bodies exhibit in Seattle, Washington, I was nervous. I am getting a degree in Biology and hope to someday become a physician’s assistant but something inside me was uneasy about seeing real bodies. I had never seen a dead body before so my senses were very heightened. It was difficult to take it all in so I stood at each body for awhile. I was trying to look at the bodies in the medical aspect but my inner voice had so many questions. Who was this person? What did they do for a living? What is their family like? How old were they when they died? How did they die? So many thoughts flooded my brain that it was difficult to focus. I was trying not to be too loud when I conversed with my sister, where as in a normal setting I wouldn’t be conscious of something like that. I was watching other people and their reactions; listening to what they said as they looked at each body. When I look at things in real life I don’t ask questions. When I see a person walking down the street with a dog I don’t wonder what the person’s name is, what they do for a living, how old they are, or even what their dog’s name is. I wanted to touch the bodies and it was very difficult to just look at things in cases and not be able to touch them. There were some touch aspects to the exhibit but I wanted to know more. I wanted to know what veins felt like in my hand. I wanted to know the texture of certain organs and who they belonged to. The atmosphere of a museum is what makes it what it is and makes seeing in a museum that much different than just a simple stroll down the streets in downtown Seattle.