Sometimes failure is a good thing.

Just in case you all were worried, you can breathe a sigh of relief- I failed my TB test.  Last Friday afternoon (at about 2pm to be exact), I was sneak-attacked by the HR dept at Saddleback and in the span of 2 hours I had to sign my name and the date about 19 times, get blood drawn, drive to Laguna Hills and get a physical and pee in a cup as part of a drug test... all for my upcoming "life as an extern" this summer.  Which is all fine and good, I will be in contact with sick people and need to be healthy and those sick patients in turn should not have to worry about catching something from me.

So, being happy that I flunked my TB test and the fact that I have a final in less than 7 days and counting, I started thinking about passing and failing tests.  For all my bluster about getting a D or F on my final and still getting a B overall, there's no way in holy hell that's going to happen if I have anything to do about it.  My good friends Pride and Vanity have rematerialized and I'm not letting go of my A without a fight.  Plus, I realized that I've made the Dean's List every semester since I decided to dropkick my life to the curb and go back to school.  I know that claiming Dean's List at Saddleback is probably along the lines of claiming your band is big in Andorra or Liechtenstein, but I got one number and one word for you: 1.369 GPA.

Anyway, enough about passing tests, back to failing tests.  You want to fail a TB test.  And that kicked off me thinking of other tests you're better off failing.  Here's my list, in no particular order:

1. TB test.

Tuberculosis is bad.  Not only does it make you sick as hell, no one wants to be around you for the 6mos-2yrs you're on antibiotics except the social health workers that follow-up with you to make sure you're taking your antibiotics.  If you test positive- get ready to meet your new friends Chest X-ray and Isoniazid.   Fail this one at all costs.

2. Pregnancy test. (If you're me at this current time in history)

I had one right before I went into nursing school and I was so happy I failed, I cried.  True story.  One day, I will probably want to see that little plus-sign and throw a party, with soda and unspiked punch of course.  But until then, few things equal impending doom than the plus sign.  And isn't that ironic?

3. Drug test.

This is of course coming from the point of view that testing positive is akin to passing the test. They're looking for it, you provided it, you therefore are positive.  I equate negative with failing.  If you don't agree- oh well, it's my list.  Just go with me.  Anyway, this is also a good one to fail.  It's kind of hard to get a job if you fail one of these.  People lose medals and titles for failing.  If you want to keep your gold medal or job, I suggest failing.

And that's it for my piece on not achieving.  It gets tiring trying to pass every little test.   Remember, in the rare instance, failure is the desired outcome.  I'm off to go try and recall what I've learned about the Neurological and Cardiovascular systems because in the case of my final, failure is NOT an option but passing and high blood pressure is.