01/14/2026
Did you know… you don’t need a textbook to start learning anatomy? 🦌
Standing in front of my father’s makeshift butchering table, before me was a leg… my 10-year-old mind was conflicted. Do I touch this thing?
Before I could decide, my father handed me a pair of pliers.
“See that? Use these. Pull on it. See what happens.”
I took the pliers and tried pinching the tendon. It was yellowish—like uncooked spaghetti—shiny, rubbery, and slippery, bouncing out of my grip more than once. Finally, I clamped down with a solid hold.
Now to pull.
Like magical puppet strings, the foot and ankle moved.
I pulled and released the tension several times, mesmerized by how the leg and foot responded—me, suddenly the puppeteer.
My father encouraged me to keep exploring. He pointed out the separations—how the tendon connected into muscle, and how each muscle fiber and muscle group was wrapped and contained, distinct from the next. I followed the path with my fingers, noticing the tough, pantyhose-like casing surrounding each muscle all the way to the opposite end of what I was holding.
His curiosity alongside mine shifted the moment from something frightening into something worth discovering.
What I didn’t realize at the time was that I was learning about muscle origins and insertions—and the framework that gives muscles something to pull against.
This was lever systems, shape, and structure at play.
And yes—I was playing with it.
Not the usual childhood games or puzzle pieces from a box, but real ones—
unconventional, perhaps—pieces that would make sense much later.
Years later, sitting in an anatomy classroom, those strange first lessons from my childhood garage—aka “the lab”—clicked into place.
Only now it was officially called Anatomy & Physiology. There were Latin names, weekly tests, and more structure—but the principles were the same.
Here’s what that 10-year-old was learning without the vocabulary:
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