1) It's required (and graded!). I'm spending this month researching Epidermolysis bullosa simplex (EBS) as part of a research course. The class is serving many purposes. For one, it's supposed to represent the graduate school experience, with 35 hours every week spent in the lab. Also, I may possibly have a Junior and Senior Seminar paper in the works based on how this research goes. And it's fun. Exhibit A: I finished my first seven hour day already and it only felt like two hours, which I suppose is a good sign because I easily spent five hours just trying to figure out an appropriate primer. Exhibit B: THIS COMIC.
Wasn't that hilarious? I thought it was hilarious. The lady is a genetic counselor. Which leads me to my second reason for starting this blog.
2) I want to be a genetic counselor, and am terrified about getting into graduate school. I had contemplated making a blog a year or so ago. I decided it would chronicle the careful cultivation of my hopes and dreams, and then chart their sudden crash and the years of travesty that would inevitably follow. Or, maybe, this blog will be discovered by front Page Yahoo! News or the AP and then I will have job offers and scholarships falling out of the sky. My dreams are in the title; I want to get into a graduate school program that only admits five people every year.
There are many good, juicy reasons for me wanting to be a genetic counselor to be confessed at a later date amongst monologues on my research. This class got me up at 7:30 this morning after a Christmas break of afternoon naps.
The humor was a big plus, but you might want to explain EBS a little more, if possible.
ReplyDeleteYour cartoon was hilarious! May I ask you why genetic counseling? What inspires you to go into that field? Also, I liked your comment about the first 7 hours on Monday. I felt the same way. It is also nice to not have to plan research around classes.
ReplyDeleteP.S. The title of your blog is very creative. :)
Jake - Added some info in my latest blog post, but will also be explaining during my presentation tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteCara - There are a lot of reasons and I was actually saving them for a big post, but here are some basics. I have a cousin with a genetic disease. I love genetics. I love people too much to stay in a lab all the time. Patient advocacy is something I wish my mom had, and it's something I wish I could give. I don't want to go to med school. I like to teach, but don't want to be a teacher. And. I know there are more but I'm blanking.