Whenever you have a surgery, even if it's a minor one, there is a set of forms you're supposed to fill out. Basically, if something horrible goes wrong during the surgery, the doctors want to know what I want people to do with my body. It's not very pleasant to think about, but it's good to be prepared.

The Ponderer - view from the back shows the exposed nervous system, including the spinal cord, which  is normally enclosed in vertebrae.

I saw Body Worlds in March for the first time. It's a display of tastefully and artistically preserved cadavers arranged in ways that enable people to have a deeper understanding of the human anatomy.

Leo and Jill and I went together. They were the perfect people to go with. Jill works in a blood analyzing lab in a hospital and Leo is an anatomy geek. Human Anatomy is one of the hardest classes our college offers, and he took it for fun. And he didn't sell back his textbook. Once during a party I saw him get so excited about the muscles in our arms that he interrupted himself mid sentence to run back to his room and grab his anatomy text book so he could show us the diagrams. ^_^

We planned on spending a good long time in the Body Worlds exhibit... You know, 2-3 hours. Well, the exhibit was a lot cooler than I had expected. It was positively unreal. I didn't personally know much about anatomy so I had lots of questions, and my travel buddies were extremely knowledgeable. The cadavers were beautiful, and I felt a connection with the donors who had consented to this sacrifice so that I could understand better. 5 1/2 hours later we finally decided to go. I wanted to stick around, but I was starting to feel dizzy because I hadn't eaten in a while. XD I figured it would be a good idea to not fall over onto the displays.

So when the nurses handed me forms that asked me what I wanted to do with my body, I got excited. Body Worlds, of course! It probably sounds creepy, but I would make an excellent specimen. I'm young and healthy and aside from the Atrial Septal Defect they are going in to fix, my body is in phenomenal condition. I have good muscles and I've never done drugs. Plastinization doesn't keep you from being a tissue and organ donor either.

Sadly, my parents are extremely opposed to the idea. The topic is stressful enough that they don't want to talk to me about it at all, which I understand. Out of respect for their feelings and love for them, the donor registration forms have gone in the trash.

Still... There is definitely a part of me that is excited by the idea that if I get detached from my body, it could still be used to help people. I would prefer this method of preservation while I look forward to the resurrection.