Junior Mattie Bovis submitted the following reflection on her experience with animal dissections during quarantine to The Black & White:

On a late-February day in 2021, I tightened my goggles and scrunched my nose as the sting of preservative chemicals filled the air of my basement. The texture of the sheep’s heart through my gloves felt tougher than I had remembered, but I recognized its light tan and pink color. I shifted on the cold basement floor to reach for the scalpel behind our huge air hockey table. With one hand I cut the useless, tender, fat parts surrounding the arteries, and with the other hand pressed play on a tutorial video. Finally, I started dissecting. 

Like many other teenagers in quarantine, I re-engaged with some of my long-standing hobbies: baking, working out, painting, hanging out with friends, music and sports I’ve done in the past. But after months of filling time by baking many types of bread, cobbler, cake and cookies, something still felt missing. Even so, I never would have imagined that I would end up here, doing biology dissections at home. 

Since I was little, I have known I want a career in medicine. When I was in elementary school, I was fascinated by learning how to help animals. In middle school, I attended the county’s Science and Technology Conference, where I performed my first big dissection: an animal heart. Even during quarantine, I was able to attend virtual medical programs over the past few summers. Everything related to the medical field has always made me feel inspired and fulfilled. The idea that I can do interesting and intricate work, while helping animals or people get better, is what draws me in the most. I had the opportunity in elementary school to shadow at a veterinary hospital in Florida. I have been used to doing more obscure medical-field-related activities since I was a kid, but this was my first time stepping out of my comfort zone in an activity I did as an elementary schooler. 

One day during my freshman year Biology class, I stared at Zoom until a big realization hit me. Going virtual was going to make me miss the hands-on work that would have gotten me directly involved with medicine. So, I got the crazy idea to just do it at home. 

Practicing and learning things relating to the medical field fills an intellectual curiosity I have to dive deeper into the field. After my first at-home dissection of the sheep heart, I’ve done many others with different animals. I’ll be excited for the opportunity to do dissections again one day in the classroom, but in the meantime, I’ve found a fascinating hobby.

To me, this was a very meaningful experience because it helped me to learn how to re-connect and further build my interest in medicine. When the summer approaches and we might have more time to ourselves, I encourage others to explore various hobbies and build upon interests, whether it relates to dissections in the medical field, or beyond. It is important that we find activities that can bring us joy, like we were able to sometimes find in a large variety of ways during the pandemic.