Anatomy 101

For the longest time I've wondered about this one question from my college anatomy class. How much urine can the bladder hold?

Why, you ask? I remember that question being on a college exam, along with four possible answers that I can't recall now. Since I never really studied for that course, I didn't know the answer so I guessed. To this day, I don't know if I answered it correctly or what was the correct answer.

I just did some searching online, and a common volume found on various Web sites for a healthy bladder is 2 cups, which is approximately 473 mL. Seems like it could hold more than that so I continued my research.

Other references list the volume of a human bladder to be 500—1,000 mL.

All in all, there doesn't seem to be one correct answer. So now I'm wondering what the possible answers were on that damn test.

I believe I got a "B" in that class, pretty good considering I guessed on all of the exams -- "Oh, that sounds about right," "That seems to make sense," or "Answer B." (Always choose answer B when guessing.)

After high school, I really couldn't have cared less about my college classes, which is sort of suprising considering I was such a nerd in high school. I'd cram for tests even when I knew the material backward and forward. Hell, I even tutored others students on some subjects. Honor society, academic bowl, math team, yearbook ... I did all the geeky activities.

Everything seemed to come so easy, too. In college, I'd procrastinate when it came to writing papers. After pulling an all-nighter to crank out a 10-page paper full of B.S., I'd get the paper back with an "A" on it. (Guess being able to write half-decent sentences makes crap sound brilliant.)

I think I stressed myself out too much in high school. Toward the end of my senior year, I had a sort of quarter-life crisis -- so burnt out that I considered not going on to college. And it's not as if my parents were pressuring me. They actually told me I didn't have to go to college. I know they meant well, but sometimes I wonder where I would be today if they had pushed me.

Of course I continued on to higher learning. In fact, one of the best choices I ever made was to attend a large city university that had a fairly diverse student population.

But my college years centered more on learning who I was than how much I could memorize for an exam. I focused on experiencing life and not just studying for it. College was more about meeting new people outside of that core group of kids you've known since kindergarten. It was about trying to figure out what I wanted to do in life. I'm still unsure of the answer to that one, but I know it's not a multiple-choice answer. You could say I'm still taking Life 101.