Good evening everyone!
Sorry I’m late—my schedule on Fridays is as follows: get up, go to work at 10:30-2:30pm, run to practice from 2:45-5:30pm, teach a swim lesson from 6:00-6:30pm, eat dinner, then write this blog. So either I write the blog before I go to work, or I write it after my day is over… and since college students in general seem to run a permanent sleep debt, you can guess what happens :). Today I happened to have a neuroscience lecture from 5:00-7:00pm, which put me behind but was delightful. Professor Jesse Goldberg spoke about his research on basal ganglia activity in songbirds, which was followed by an Indian food dinner and a long chat with my two neuroscience lab professors. It was a very satisfying evening, even if my brain is a bit sore from frantic note-taking (professors in general seem to be the fast-talking type.)
Before I get into the week though, I must talk about last Sunday. (I tend to neglect events that happen before yesterday—my poor memory seems only to be able to record so much at a time ;)). We had a recruit, Charlotte, come and visit us! I hope she comes to Wellesley, because the whole team thinks she’d be a great fit. We had our typical swimming recruit visiting schedule: each of us signed up for slots to spend with her, and she thus gets to have a 28-person range of what Wellesley’s like. It’s a very special experience, one that I think the swim team does especially well. If you’re ever interested in visiting Wellesley alone (not with the influx of Spring Open Campus, which I enjoyed, but this seems even better), come visit the swimming team. My shift was with Tiffany, Grace, Karina, and Keelin, and we went canoeing in Lake Waban while Karina and Keelin guarded. It was a great time and I can’t wait until all the prospies (prospective students) and recruits come for Spring Open Campus!
Altogether though, this has been a rather rough week. I did see it coming, but there’s nothing quite like two major tests along with the expectation that all the normal homework will also get done. We had a neuroscience practicum (which involved memorizing brain parts and review of all of our previous labs) and a biology 111/113 practicum (which involved memorizing fetal pig parts and review of all those labs). Needless to say, I spent a long while in the presence of formaldehyde (a preservation solution—the sheep brains and pigs both marinated quite a while in it) and I feel like a Victorian lady, but I must complain of breathing too many fumes.
One went well; one didn’t, but at least I’ve a day recovery before it begins again. With only three weeks of school left, testing and major assignments before finals period are coming to the front. It’s nice because it makes me catch up on all of the readings that I’ve fallen behind on, but it’s definitely a bit stressful. We’ve been learning in neuro that having adrenaline running through your brain is toxic in the long-term because of the increased calcium permeability, and I’m kind of worried that I’ve much too much calcium running around in general… 😉
That said, in the past few days I’ve been reflecting on what I can do to reduce that stress. I came into singing class on Thursday right after taking one of my practicals, and had to tell my teacher that I hadn’t practiced much this week. She proceeded to tell me that she could tell, as my voice sounded hollow and more deflated than usual. She then asked me why I looked so pained when I was singing a song that I liked (I told her I didn’t think it sounded good). Yesterday, instead of working on technique like we usually do, we worked on smiling in romantic songs, in performing them properly, and being relaxed and happy when you sing. It was wonderful, and I become more emotional than I think I should be when I think about how it felt to come out of that class not technically challenged, but refreshed and happier than I was when I came in. I think that’s the essence of a good teacher, to be able to sense that in your students and to not just plough through, but to change the lesson a bit so that it’s still productive but just what I needed. Thank you, Professor Dry.
Thursday went much better after that, and I walked to neuroscience happy. Along the way, I heard the usual carousel performance from Green Hall (Wellesley students in this organization play songs with bells at specific times during the day—Harry Potter music, Christmas carols, and others are among those I have recognized over the year), but it was a bit more tentative than usual. Since I had just run into Tiffany at lunch, who told me she was off to carousel (she had joined a few months earlier, and had been practicing the bells), I had an inkling it was her. When I ran into her at dinner, I found out it was indeed her first live concert!
That was great to learn, and moreover neuroscience practicum (this is our normal “practicum” class (essentially a lab but shorter) as opposed to our “practicum” test) was a lot of fun yesterday. We broke up into subgroups of 8 students (YES! I love small class sizes), and were handed a case study of someone with a neurological disorder. After being fed cheese (I love cheese), almonds, cashews, chocolate-covered raisins, and fruit, we were told that we could organize the class however we wished as long as we investigated what might be wrong with this person. It was essentially the optimum class, as it was student-run with occasional adult guidance, we had a real-life application of what we had learned in class, we got to write all over the white board and participate, there were only a few of us, and there was food to boot. This is the life, people—academic heaven for a first-year neuro student right here ;).
Biology 112 Lab that night was also a lot of fun. Not very efficient, I must say (grinding up spinach chloroplasts takes a surprisingly long time), but Veronica and I did our work well and chatted with our classmates about what was going to happen next year (registration was on Wednesday for the sophomores) and over the summer. As for registration, I did get into most of my classes despite not being in all the sections I wanted. Nevertheless, I count myself lucky, as Neuroscience 200, Math 215, and especially Organic Chemistry are completely full right now. Math 215 actually was full before it got to the sophomores (we do registration by class order, so the seniors get to go first), so I signed up for Math 205 instead, which is multivariable. I can’t say I’m really looking forward to it (math has never really been my cup of tea), but it’ll be good for me and will hopefully apply to some of the work I do later in the sciences. Returning back to Bio though: I do love talking with my classmates when I get the chance. Surprisingly, I don’t often have time to talk to my peers, especially in class lectures, but science labs provide a unique opportunity to form bonds that I find very valuable.
So that was my week, with the good points especially highlighted :). While I do spend a lot of my time studying and doing homework, I must continuously remind myself that I don’t study for school because I have to, but because I like to. I so easily lose myself in stress and making the most out of every minute of my day, and yet it’s all so much more enjoyable to spend some time talking with friends or run around in the beautiful day we had today. It’s always good to remember that I’m living great years of my life right now, and I won’t enjoy it more when I ‘just accomplish this,’ but that I had best enjoy it all the way through because I will essentially be the same person for however many years I get to live. 🙂
Hm, that’s it for now! I actually have some great news before I sign off—since I am going to be working at Wellesley over the summer, I asked if I could blog over the summer as well. Ms. Pelham gave me permission, so you will be hearing from me all summer long! I can’t wait—ready to ready about research all throughout your summer as well? I bet it’ll be quite a different experience for both sides…
I’m always open for questions and comments, and hope you have good night!
Monica
