Permanent Student

On one of my graduate school applications, I came across an interesting essay prompt that I had not seen on any other of my school applications.

The prompt is as follows:
In an essay, discuss how your personal background informs your decision to pursue a graduate degree. Please include any educational, familial, cultural, economic, or social experiences, challenges, community service, outreach activities or opportunities relevant to your academic journey; how your life experiences contribute to the social, intellectual, or cultural diversity within your chosen field; and/or how you might serve educationally underrepresented segments of society with your degree.

While I was writing my response, I thought about why I truly wanted to attend graduate school and the things that I am looking forward to once I complete my degree. 

My Response:

Throughout high school I had participated in a variety of education-based courses, ones that would allow high school students the opportunity to learn techniques from other teachers in the district. At the time, I felt like my path was drawn for me; I was going to be a math/science teacher and because of that, I chose to attend Central Washington University due to their prestige regarding their teaching program. Towards the middle of my junior year (of college), I came to a realization that I did not want to become a teacher anymore. I was beginning to take more advanced Chemistry courses and I was learning more in-depth about topics that I could not pronounce in high school. Although I had always wanted to become a teacher, at that moment, I decided that I wanted to be a “permanent” student. The perplexing idea of graduate school was introduced to me when I first made that epiphany, which coincides with my passion for learning. No matter the subject or the professor teaching the course, I truly love to learn and what better way to continue learning than by pursing higher education. After all, is that not what college is for aspiring high school seniors?

As I mentioned before, the idea of a “permanent” student seems counter-intuitive, but in academia, and more generally in the discipline of science, are we not all permanent students? We are consistently searching for answers, for cures, for reasons why the universe works the way it does. Our curiosity and the pursuit of knowledge is what drives scientists to make remarkable discoveries. Although we may think we are students because we do not take quizzes/exams every three weeks, we continue to test ourselves and our hypotheses through dozens of experiments and tests. The world of science is open to change. By that I mean there is always some new experiment to do, some new project or world-crisis that needs to be solved. A fresh perspective is all that it takes to take a turn an already novel idea into an extraordinary one. My passion to pursue higher education is fueled by the fact that I will be soon become a hybrid of academia; the student who thirsts for knowledge and the teacher who passes down his knowledge onto others. Graduate school would provide me the opportunity to become that hybrid and it will allow me to make a truly remarkable difference in the world of both education and science.

Just my $0.02 

Have a good weekend!

NT 

Summer's Ending.

As the first week of school is creepily approaching, I am both excited and nervous to begin my senior year. The classes that I will be taking throughout the year will (most likely) be the hardest ones of my undergraduate career (Physical chemistry, analytical chemistry, etc). Nonetheless, I am thrilled to think that in a year from now, I would already have started graduate study! My application process has been going quite well. I have my Statement of Purpose done (well my "template") and I have made my CV. I just have to ensure that my GRE scores get shipped to the schools and that my letter of recommendation writers submit their letters. My research has been going pretty smoothly (lots of failure, but hey, that's organic synthesis). My job starts up next week and i'll begin TA'ing next week as well.

I am feeling great about school and life right now and I am feeling on top of the world.

Thanks for enjoying your daily Trashtalk and have a good day!

NT 

New Digs.

Tomorrow it will be a week since I have moved into my new place for my last year at CWU. My place is nice! I'll post a profuse amount of pictures (profuse was one of my GRE vocabulary words, so I thought I would use it)! I'll give you a virtual-no imaged tour before you scroll down to look at the pictures. The exterior of the house is comprised of light-green paneling with a pink (yes... pink) upper half. It looks likes the house a watermelon fanatic would live in. There are four parking spots assigned to us (Lucas, Erik and myself) for our motor vehicles, yet Lucas is the only one with a car. So those will sit there emptily for the year.

As you walk into the house, you have three choices of direction. If you travel to the left, you will first face a decent-sized closet in front of you, then travel towards the downstairs bathroom. The bathroom also has our washer-dryer combo and has a "backdoor" to the downstairs room (which is mine). If you continue up the stairs upon entrance to the house, you'll eventually have to make another decision of left/right, either Lucas or Erik's rooms.

On the left hand side is Lucas's room, which has a vaulted ceiling and a window on the south-facing side of the house. One neat thing about his room is that he has access to a rather large attic that can house lots of stuff! I believe it runs to the front of the house, but I am not sure. Venturing to the right at the top of the staircase leads you to the master bedroom, which also has high ceilings. This room has a north-facing window, which conveniently allows views of the 3/4 bathroom that he has in his room. There is no door to the bathroom; it literally changes from carpet to linoleum as you turn the corner that is in front of his window. It could be slightly awkward for anyone who is outside looking up at the window, but luckily, there are blinds.

Traveling to the right upon arrival, you are greeted with the living/dining room. It is a pretty spacious area that has a large window, which faces the driveway. Heading towards the back of the cottage, you'll run into the kitchen is decent in size (nothing compared to my kitchen in my place last year). Although I will mention that the appliances (more specifically the stove and oven) work 100x better in this place than my place last year.

Once you have seen all the glory that the kitchen has to offer, you can walk through the door on your left and you will enter my room. I have a fairly decent-sized room, but i'll let my pictures do my talking.

My running wall

I finally have a closet!

My bookshelf :)

My "desk" haha

Its

Dresser and tub

Thanks for taking the time to read this post and have a good day!

NT

Birthday!

Today is my 22nd birthday! (Hooray!!!) Now if "all things went according to plan," I would have actually been born in the end of October (Halloween was my expected due date). That is a difference of 85 days, almost three months of valuable fetus-growing time that I missed out on. My mom, as well as the rest of my family members and medical professionals that I tell my birth story too, categorize me as a "one in a million" child and when you are that tiny, it is easy to see why.

I was officially born at two pounds and three ounces and fourteen inches in length. To put that in size comparison, go to your fridge and grab two sticks of butter. Also, grab a ruler (standard 12inch ruler) and add two more inches. It's crazy to recollect on how small I was and how lucky I was to live.

Standing up! Well not really haha

 My outward appearance is not the most pleasant in these photographs. When I look at myself, I frequently consider myself Benjamin Button (because he looked all wrinkly when he was born because he was born old). Notice how my eyes are shut. No, it wasn't because it was bright outside. My eye lids had not developed yet so technically, I was blind.

Too much work to stand up. 

Tubes for days!!

This is one my personal favorite pictures because it really shows the condition I was in when I was born. Breathing tubes, feeding tubes, checking my vitals, everything.

This was my home for three months

Sibling love :)

 This picture to the left is probably one of the first sibling photos ever (now that I think about it). My brother (who had just turned three in this picture) is feeding me with a syringe.

My mom and dad! 

Dr. Richard. 

This is one of the doctors/nurses who saved my life that day. His name is Dr. Richard (hence my middle name).

I hope that everyone has a great day! Live everyday as if it may be your last because you never know what could happen.

NT  














EDIT: I found out this morning that my good friend's sister was killed yesterday (8/7/2013) by a drunk driver last night and I would like this post to not only be a celebration of my life, but also hers as well. Although I did not know her personally, if she was anything like her brother, she would have been a charismatic, witty, and overall amazing person.

Moral of the story, don't drink and drive. It is really easy to call up a friend and ask for a ride home, don't put yourself and everyone else at risk of injury because you are too lazy to call a friend. Thoughts are going out to you and your family bud.

GRE update and potential school list.

As I have mentioned before in previous posts, I plan on attending graduate school and I think I have decided which schools I am going to apply for! But before I can send off my applications and enjoy the agonizing wait period of either acceptance or denial, I must first take the GRE. The Graduate Record Exam (GRE) is a standardized test given to future applicants of graduate schools. There are three main sections: verbal, quantitative, and analytical. The verbal and quantitative sections are comprised of ~40 questions each. The verbal section focuses on vocabulary and comprehension of passages, while the quantitative section is all math-based (like the math you would have seen on the SAT's). The analytical portion is merely two 30-minute essays, one being an argumentative and the other being an "issue-based" essay.

I started studying for the GRE last week and so far things have been going well! Being a math guy, I do not have too many problems with the difficulty of the math, but I tend to make slip-ups here and there. I wish I had the same amount of confidence on the verbal section as I do on the math, because I would be sitting pretty if I did! My vocabulary bank does not have a lot of cash in it, but slowly and surely, I am depositing a few dollars here and there in order to help increase my score. I am taking the test three weeks from monday, so wish me luck!

My list for school is narrowed down to four. I know that does not seem like a lot, but I have faith that I will get into one of the Ph.D programs I am applying for.

Go Cougs! 

School #1. Washington State University 

To be honest, I love the feel of a college town. There is no rustle&bustle of a city and everyone seems to take more pride of the campus. My sister is an alumni from WSU and I know she would be thrilled to have me follow in her footsteps. Also my undergraduate research advisor is a 4x WSU grad (Two bachelors, a masters, and his doctorate). His advisor STILL works there (he has been there since 1957!) so I am potential looking into his lab or another professor's who does research on inhibitors for various cancers.

School #2. University of Washington

Go Dawgs!

Being raised in Washington, this is the school that every "intelligent person" plans on attending. Whether they get their undergrad there, their professional degree (MD, PharmD, DDS, etc), or attend graduate school there, UW has a noted reputation of being one of the best schools in the state. Now if I get accepted there, do I choose reputation over familiarity (not that I know Pullman extremely well)? Do I want to be the only native English-speaking kid in my class? (That was a joke people...). Nonetheless, I know that I would receive an outstanding education there, but I do not know if I want to live in the city.

School #3. University of California, Davis

Go Aggies!

Now this is my "longshot" school. There have been two other students from CWU that have attended their graduate chemistry program because they, similar to UW, have a reputation of being successful when it comes to publications and financial assistance. My one draw back is the location; it is in California! My girlfriend would feel obligated to move to California with me if I decided to attend UC Davis. I do not want to keep her away from potential job opportunities [in WA] because I want to spend more time in school, but it'd be pretty hard to not see her for long stints of time. I am going to apply there and whatever happens, happens.


School #4. Central Washington University

Go Wildcats!

Now you may be asking yourself, why would he want to attend graduate where he got his undergraduate degree? Why wouldn't he want to travel to another school and get more experience? I do want to attend other schools, but I need to stay realistic and if other schools do not want me, then I will stay at Central and get my Masters (rather than a Ph.D). Now that is even assuming I can get into the graduate school program here (which I think I could, but I want to keep all options open). I love Central and I love the faculty that we have there. I know most of them fairly well and would love to continue my passion for chemistry in the place where I first fell in love with it.



Guess what everybody?!?! My birthday is in three days! I am going to be double-deuces (22) haha.

Anyway, thank you for reading this and have a good day!

NT

College Majors.

As the senior year of my undergraduate school slowly approaches, I wanted to take a moment and reflect on my college experience. Being a science major, I would say that over 50% of my friends are science-related majors. Physical science, not social science (those don't count). With that in mind, I wanted to make a list of majors that I have not, and never, will understand. I watched a video on Youtube that discussed the "Most useless college majors" and that was the inspiration for this post.

NOTE: I AM NOT INTENDING TO DOWNPLAY ANYONE'S MAJOR/CAREER PATH WITH THIS BLOG POSTING. THESE ARE SIMPLY MY PERSONAL OPINIONS AND IF YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO SHARE ABOUT MY LIST, YOU CAN LEAVE A COMMENT AT THE BOTTOM.

#5. Psychology.  

Why this on the list: Psychology is considered a "soft" science, grouped with others like sociology, anthropology, geography, etc. Unless you want to go into academia, I don't often find having a degree in a "soft science" being very marketable.

Jobs you can get with this degree: Psychologist, Psychiatrist, Counselor, etc.

While I think that the skills you learn as a result of your degree are valuable (such as critical thinking, identifying behaviors, counseling, etc.), I don't think that psychology degree's themselves are rather difficult (Its like Criminal Justice, which isn't on the list, but its like #6).

#4. English/Humanities

Why this is on the list: Other than being able to write long papers without any grammatical errors, can you tell me another benefit for having an English degree? I actually just finished up with my summer class on Latin American Literature (which was very enjoyable!) with my professor who has a Ph.D in English. I can understand a dissertation for a science-related field (a research project), but what constitutes a dissertation for an English major? Write a really, really long paper?

Jobs you can get with this degree: Writer/Author, Journalist???, English teacher, etc.

#3. Anything ending in "Studies"

Why this is on the list: At my school alone, we have so many different types of "studies" programs. Some of those include: Women, Any race you desire (Asian, Native American, Latin American, etc.) Family, etc. I have quite a few friends who have completed or are in the midst of completing their Family Studies degree. I don't even know the point of that is? I mean you grew up with a family at one point or another, am I right? The other types of studies, such as the different geographical areas, what can you really do with that? "I spent four years studying Women Studies, now I can be a better woman because I understand them," as if you did not understand them before?  

Jobs you can get with this degree: Family counselor, social worker, etc. 

I feel like the job market for people who have obtained these degrees is not very hot. I think that this degree could be a great asset as an accompanying degree (or like a minor). But I think the integrity of this degree is similar to that of wet paper. 

#2. Recreation & Tourism

Why this is on the list: Aside from my #1 most ridiculous major, I whole heartily do not see the purpose of this. "Congrats on your Rec/Tourism degree! You can serve me drink on the plane, or you can be the entertainer on the cruise I am on." At the end of this past school year, my Professor (for Transition Metal Chemistry) took us all out for drinks and we were talking about other degrees. Someone had mentioned Rec/Tourism and everyone laughed because that degree is seriously a joke. Scanning over the classes required for the major, I noticed that they all have to do with "helping people," as if that is hard? Here's a concept: Get a job that requires human interaction. There is your degree right there. 

#1. Interdisciplinary/General Studies

Why this is on the list: A college degree is suppose to prepare you for a future career, correct? Well, how does knowing little about unrelated topics useful to anyone? It may help you out on Jeopardy because that is the only way you are going to make money from a Gen. Studies degree. As I was looking through various images pertaining to Gen. Studies, I came across this little nugget (See the graduation cap). At the University of Michigan (which is great institution!), they surveyed their athletes on campus and found that athletes (which make up 3% of their undergraduate population on campus) make up almost half (49%) of the General Studies undergraduate degrees. What can we infer from this? That a lot of athletes are choosing General Studies for their major. Why is this? Because this degree is EASY! As a former student athlete, I can attest to the time commitment athletics takes throughout the course of just a single week!

At the University of Michigan (which is great institution!), they surveyed their athletes on campus and found that athletes (which make up 3% of their undergraduate population on campus) make up almost half (49%) of the General Studies undergraduate degrees. What can we infer from this? That a lot of athletes are choosing General Studies for their major. Why is this? Because this degree is EASY! As a former student athlete, I can attest to the time commitment sports takes. I understand that your passion is sports, but when your are at college, you are a student athlete! Not an athletic student. The webpage that this image is associated with (can be found here: http://www.mlive.com/wolverines/academics/stories/index.ssf/2008/03/athletes_safe_harbor_is_genera.html) has another interesting image of a General Studies students' transcript. It was noted that the student's GPA in the four independent study courses they took was a 3.91 and a 2.68 for all of the other courses they took. Not too surprised.

I would like to thank anyone who is reading this and please feel free to leave comments!

Have a good day!

NT 

Vacation.

Two weeks ago, my sister and I left from good 'ole Washington to my home state of New Jersey to visit my Dad and my other relatives that there. My dad's whole side of the family lives over there and sometimes I wish that they lived closer (or that I lived closer so that I could see them more frequently than once every year). Nonetheless, the time that I spent there was unforgettable and I cherish every minute that I get to spend with my family.

My sis and I on the way to NJ! 

We left from SeaTac around 3pm and the flight (scheduled for a little under five hours) went by so quickly! With the combination of my working on homework, reading my novel for said course, and my Ipod, I was surprised when I heard the captain say "...prepare the cabin for descent." Arriving in NJ at around 11:30pm (eastern time) we had to endure another hour and half of driving to get to my dad's house.

The first few days of our trip were spent relaxing down at the shore, enjoying the sunny days and the warm ocean. The eastern seaboard was in the midst of a horrendous heat wave with temperature in the upper 90's. Combing the high temperatures with the even higher humidity percentages made everyone feel like a roast pig at a luau.

The first day of "family time" came on sunday when we were planning on going over to aunt Lisa's to have a BBQ. On the RSVP list was: the four of us, my aunt Lisa and her kids (DJ and Lauren), my uncle Martin and aunt Debbie and their son Greg (who also brought his girlfriend Melissa), and my aunt Diane and uncle Tony. My grandpa also came to the BBQ and brought his "girlfriend." afternoon and evening was pleasant and filled with laughs, jokes, and great food.

The Treich clan

As with all family gatherings, everyone asks you the typical "How are you doing? what are your future plans? blah blah blah."Coming up to the conclusion of my college career, I was telling everyone that I was planning on attending graduate school (which I still am!).
During this BBQ I had an interesting conversation with my cousin Greg (the first person from the right on the second row). He graduated from RPI this past spring with a degree in Chemistry and is going to grad school for Materials Science in the fall. When I am at home, I don't tend to talk about what I do at school because most of them probably would not understand it, but it was great to talk with Greg because he could relate to practically everything that I had to say. He gave me great advice pertaining to the grad school application process, as well discussing what type of projects he want to work on.

My uncle Martin (Greg's dad) works as a executive at a pharmaceutical company (I think...), so when i told him my interest in pharmaceuticals, he began to tell me about his work (which I didn't mind). One of the interesting things that came up during our conversation was this website called LinkedIn, which is basically a Facebook for businesses. This website allows everyone to create a profile and depending on your "friends" (called connections on the website), allows you to chat and interact with one another. This website is designed so that people can connect with executives from other business for potential employment opportunities. So where does my uncle come into play? Well he said that if I create a profile, upload my resume (and all of the other jazz), he would try his best to get my a connection somewhere! I will definitely take him up on his offer after graduate school.

Fast-forward to wednesday morning where my sis and myself began our epic road trip to Boston! I was the driver for two reasons: one, I love driving and two, my sister hates driving. So naturally, it worked out!

On the road again! 

Our trip to Boston involved several pit stops along the way. Our first stop was New Haven, Connecticut, the home of Yale University. Being a Gilmore Girls fan, my sister was excited about walking the hallowed halls that Lorelai herself walked through (at least that's what we can believe!). The school is right in the heart of New Haven and the university buildings blend right into the local apartments and eateries.

The next stop on our trip northward to Boston was a little town of Springfield, Massachusetts. What is so important about this town? This town houses the Dr. Suess Memorial Park that houses several statues of famous characters from his books including Horton, the Thing's, and of course, the Cat in the Hat. Prior to our trip, we both were doing research about where we should stop and what attractions we wanted to see along the way. While the memorial was interesting and a fun little pit-stop on the way to Boston, the town itself was rather lower class.

Yale Bulldog!

Cat in the Hat

The North Bridge in Concord

The last stop before we arrived in Boston was in Lexington/Concord (appropriately home to the battles of Lexington and Concord). During the Revolutionary War, the British troops marched (on land) from Boston, through the town of Lexington and into the town of Concord. This trail (at least the portion from Lexington to Concord, which is about five miles) remains present to exhibit the same path the British soldiers marched nearly 240 years ago! Their is a national park that stretches the length of the trail and travelers can stop along the way to look at various landmarks (we didn't stop at too many places because a lot of the attractions were not open to the public).

After all of our shenanigans, we finally arrived in Boston and found the way to our hotel (which was an arduous process). After being in the car for five-ish hours on the way up, we did want to drive around Boston to find a place to eat. To solve our hunger problem, we walked across the parking lot to 99's (kind of like a TGIF's feel to it!). I had a delicious cod fillet BLT (minus the T) and my sister had a chicken wrap of some kind (can't remember exactly what). After dinner, we walked back to our hotel and decided to call it a night (after watching Big Brother of course). We decided that we were going to start tomorrow bright and early because we were going to explore the city of Boston and make our way over to Harvard University.

Touring one of America's oldest cities brings a sense of nostalgia to everything. Walking along the Freedom trail, which contains some of Boston's and America's most iconic landmarks, enhances the level of nostalgia 8974938714 fold! Boston is a phenomenal city that combines rich history with contemporary style. The entire "trail" (really just a red line painted on the street" is roughly two and a half miles. We did not walk along the entire length of the trail, but we walked a good portion of it! After we had our fill of history, we grabbed a quick bite to eat and made our way on the "T" to Cambridge, MA.

Harvard Square

Harvard University is one of the best institutions in the world. It has been the college of seven U.S. presidents including JFK and our current president, Barack Obama. In order to acquire the full Harvard experience, we decided to go on a student-led campus tour (something that we did not do at Yale). Our tour guide was named Sara who is a psychology major (I'll have a rant on that in another blog) and minoring in math. She proceeded to tell us that she knows six languages (English, Spanish, French, Italian, Russian, and one other), which blew my mind! Nonetheless, our tour consisted of us two, 14 people from South Korea, one kid from Russia, and another couple (not sure where they were from because they didn't talk). Needless to say, the tour was very informative and I appreciated all of the little tidbits and facts that Sara was able to tell us.

After the tour, we decided to go over to the Museum of Natural History which housed an exhibit about glass flowers. To be honest, I wasn't too excited about the flowers prior to seeing them. After I witnessed the craftsmanship of the flowers, my mind totally changed. There were over 800 species of flowers on display and I can honestly say that I looked at every single one. In addition to the flowers, the exhibit next store housed hundreds of rock, mineral, and elemental samples. Being a chemist, I was looking at the chemical makeup of all of the rocks and tried to imagine the crystalline structure based on the formula (some were easier than others)

Glass flowers and leaves

Say that name five times fast

Giant hunk of Sulfur!

We left Boston on friday morning and started making the drive back to the Millburn, NJ. We had to pick up my dad along the way because he went on a business retreat with his co-workers and we took his car haha. On the way back, we got stuck in traffic and were in the car for two extra hours longer than it needed to be. All and all, our road trip was a great success and I will definitely visit Boston again in the near future!

Sunday morning was an action packed day. My dad decided to rent a pontoon boat and us four, Lisa and her family, and grandpa joined us for an afternoon on the water. The water was AMAZING! It was a perfect temperature and it wasn't too choppy (even with all of the boats and jet-skis in the water).

Overall, our trip was everything that I would hope for! I got to enjoy time with my family, travel to a new place, and just relax where I have so many fond memories. I do miss my family in NJ and I would never trade a second of my time there for anything else. I have frequently been asked the question "Which do you prefer, Washington of New Jersey?" To tell you the truth, both states have certain characteristics that fill me with happiness. So my answer to that question is "I do not prefer one over the other because they are both homes to me."

I know this was a long blog, so I would like to thank everyone who has the time (and patience) to read this!

Gizmo.

My girlfriend would be the first to tell you that I am not a fan of smaller dogs. She would only say that because I have made fun of her dogs ever since I met her (back in 2009??? wow that's a long time ago). Back on point, today my Dad, Mary, Jess and I went over to my Aunt Lisa's house for a family BBQ. All of the aunts, uncles and some of my cousins were going to be there: Uncle Martin and Aunt Debbie with Greg (and he brought his girlfirnd too), Uncle Tony and Aunt Diane, Aunt Lisa, DJ and Lauren. In addition, my grandpa came to and brought his girlfriend (which was slightly awkward, but it's all good!).

Lisa has had this dog, names Gizmo, for quite some time (at least ten years) and today she told us that he developed cancer and that he was very sick. I could tell immediately that he was quite sick because he was very skinny (you could see his whole spine) and he was very slowing moving. Even in his condition, he still walked over to Jess and I and said "hello." She went on to tell us that he was going to be put down tomorrow and that today was going to be his last day. When she told me that, I began to reflect on when I first met the little guy.

I first met Gizmo in upstate New York when we were at Uncle Steve's (Lisa's former husband) cabin. The cabin was gorgeous and it was on a great piece of property. Gizmo joined us that year because it was their new dog (their first pet too I believe). He was quite the ankle bitter at that time (he constantly bit my ankles and feet throughout the whole trip). But he was always full of spunk for being such a little dog.

Since today is his last day, I wanted to take the moment to think back about all of the good memories I had with him and hope that DJ, Lauren, and Lisa will be ok.

This is my cousin DJ with Gizmo, one of his best friends. RIP

See-Saw.

This past school year has had its share of twists and turns. I have changed my major and changed career paths twice, which I know isn't unheard of. At the start of last year, I was dead-set on being a high-school science teacher. I had two years of in-classroom experience and I had taken (arguably) the best education course I had ever taken that quarter (Thank you Dr. Q). As I started to become more interested in medicine and pharmacy, I made a quick-decision to go into pharmacy because it combined my passion for science with my inherent nature of helping people. For a while, I thought that was a great compromise (I mean, not to mention my paycheck would be like 3x that of a teaching salary). With the interest in pharmacy came the possibility of graduate school, more specifically pharmacy school. During early spring (say like March), I was able to do a job-shadow at the local pharmacy in town (E-burg). Although I only spent a few hours there, I had a feeling that this was not my scene. It wasn't fun and if there is anything that I have learned about jobs, if you do not enjoy it, then do something about it.

So I did something about it. I switched my "plan" from pharmacy to organic/medicinal chemistry. I enjoy organic chemistry; I am good at it and I know it and, surprisingly, well enough that I can explain it to others (My boss trusts me to teach it to other people!). So as of today, I plan on going to graduate school to pursue a degree in Organic/Medicinal Chemistry. Now the $1,000,000 questions are...

1. Where do I go to graduate school?

2. Do I pursue a Master's program or a Ph.D. program?

3. Should I bypass graduate school and go back into education?

I'll be thinking about these questions for the next few months before I take my GRE (which is two months btw) and I also need to think about how my decision will affect myself, Amanda, and my family.

Seattle Marathon: Rock and Roll...down a cliff

Yesterday's race was an experience to say the least. There where several moments throughout the race where I legitimately wanted to drop out of the race. The amount of pain I was in during the latter parts of the race was so severe that we (Kyle and myself) had hard times simply walking. But I think that the most beneficial little nugget of knowledge I learned from yesterday's race was to always keep your goals in mind (Our goals happened to be the following: 1. Finish the race and 2. Drink beer)

We arrived at our corral about five minutes before the race officially started. Everyone was representing their newly acquired gear from yesterdays expo: compression socks, hydration packs, and other goodies that add "mental reassurement" that they will run better. Nonetheless, it took about twenty minutes for us to reach the start line. Frank Shorter sent off each corral onto the streets of Seattle (Side note: I got to meet Frank Shorter personally at the expo and got his autograph. I also got to meet Steve Scott, got his autograph, and he gave me some coaching advice about how to improve my strength while running).

As we began our adventure from the EMP towards Lake Washington BLVD the roads were relatively flat, which allowed for some difficulties in pacing (Throughout the first half of the race, all of our miles were between 8:40 and 9:10). The first ten miles were quite nice, except for a small bathroom break that I had to take a little past mile eight. We ran along Lake Washington BLVD where there was an absolute gorgeous view of Mt. Rainier. This portion of the run (from miles seven through eleven) was a loop that only the participants of the marathon completed (gotta add the extra 13.1 miles somewhere right??). As we left the loop and approached the halfway mark, my legs started to talk back to me and they were not saying nice things. It was at this poing in the race where I wanted to quit.

There are a number of factors that contribute to the fact that the last half of the race consisted of spurts of hobbling, mixed with lots of walking and stretching, and a dash of disappointment.

Factor #1 I had not trained. Often this is the largest reason for the inability fo succeed during a race; lack of preparation. I had not done any run over nine miles in the past six months (remember, this is a 26.2 mile race).

Factor #2 I did not how to handle mid-race hydration (I looked like a fool trying to drink water/Gatorade while jogging), nor how to consume those disgusting GU gel packets.

Factor #3 I underestimated the marathon. There is a reason why 4.1% of runners in the 2012 Boston Marathon did not finish the race. It could be due to the two factors I listed above or entirely different reasons.

Nonetheless, I will not underestimate another race again. I learned valuable experience that cannot be taught in a class, or absorbed from a another runner's horror stories. The experience of nearly falling at something has to be learned; otherwise, how will you realize when you have failed at something?


This is us post-race (I am the one on the left in the green singlet).

Marathon.

So I am running this little race on Saturday and I should probably start running so I can finish it. Don't want to embarrass myself on the course.

Summer!

It's that time of the year again, summer vacation. The never-ending Facebook posts about attending graduations and the thrill that finals are done with are slowly fading away. The weather is becoming more "user-friendly," which is always a good thing. I moved out of my house last week, which was kind of a shock to one of my roommates. I could tell that she was pretty upset, but I hope that she knows that although we may have ended on a sour note, I would not have traded that experience for anything. It is surreal that I only have one more year of my undergraduate career, one more year of being a student (that is until graduate school starts!!!). Speaking of graduate school, I am going to register for the GRE tomorrow and will take it at the end of August. I plan on applying to WSU, UW, UC Davis and a few other schools. I will have to get a several letters of recommendation, which I will probably ask for when I arrive back to school (or earlier so I can have those before I take the GRE). I plan on going to school in either organic chemistry or medicinal chemistry, depending on which school I get accepted to. If I do not get accepted into a Ph.D school, I will also apply to the Master's Program at CWU, where I will continue to work under Dr. Fabry. For right now, I will continue to post blogs throughout the summer! Oh on a side note, this time next week, I will have finished my first marathon (and certainly not my last). See ya later!