Mid-Pre-Adulthood Life Crisis

This week the schedule of all the Spring semester classes came out. This means nothing more than drop all your homework and spend the next 3 hours researching professors and determining what your schedule should be. Not that I did that or anything. So here I am scheduling along when I kind of realize, "Oh hey! Looks like I will only have 31 hours left after this Spring semester. Wait a minute...?"

So. It looks like I will be graduating a year early. Which is CRAY CRAY to the max. I always planned that I would be graduating a semester early because of AP hours. But goodness, the idea of one whole year early has definitely took me for a loop. I won't really have a true senior year in college experience. Which is sad. But I don't think I want to extend out my schooling just to do that. I am only taking 13 hours this semester, then 15 and 16, respectively. That means 3 more semesters of being a not-real adult. SCARY. Of course, this will only happen if the classes are offered when they should be, etc. etc. I will still be applying for medical school with my normal class. Which means I will have a year to live at home (Oh hi, Mom and Dad!), have a job to make some doll-hairs, preferably go on an extended mission, all before hopefully entering med school. I guess that's the reason this freaks me out so much. Because I will have at least a year (I pray no more) of waiting. In case you guys have figured it out.... LIFE IS GETTING REAL. 


So, mid-pre-adulthood life crisis out in the clear. That's my story.

In other news, A&M had a Bazaar, aka craft fair today. OH MY YES, I did just say craft fair. So I was in heaven. And I love my school. And I bought a headband (no surprise). And it made me really want to open my own Etsy shop again, because I think that the stuff I make would be about 14 (ay, ay, ay, ay, ay) times cuter than anything I saw today. Seriously though. Should I? Real talk: even if I don't sell anything I would still wear it myself. So no doll-hairs lost, right? Right. I am thinking headbands (mainly), small home decor type items, ornaments and cute garland type things. I don't know. I also think it would be a cool idea to give a portion of my profits to one of my favorite organizations. Crafting for a cause, eh? Aside from the fact that I love crafting, continuing to pursue my hobbies and actually doing something with them would look really great for medical school application. Always lookin' ahead, nom? So anyway. Etsy store, yay or nay?

I may or may not have spent my morning looking for my 15 year old gameboy. Look at these games though? Still no luck, but praying that it didn't wander into a Goodwill box over the past 5 years...! Beach trip, here we come!

A little bit of humor for your day, or at least a laugh at my silliness:

After waking up at 6am (thanks inner alarm clock) I stayed in bed until 8:30 when my REAL alarm clock woke up. Got ready and headed to French where I think I might like my professor, although she speaks really fast and really-not-in-English. So 10:20 rolls around and I head over to my chemistry lecture which starts at 10:30.

I sit down and see my last semester professor. Odd, not who the schedule says. I look at the syllabus being passed before me. Odd, it says Chem 1315. I'm taking 1415 this semester. So, I look at the color-coded schedule note cards I made to check and make sure I am in the right lecture hall. And I am. And now I am confused.

You see, national holidays create a little confusion for me. Here I am, all geared up for my first day of school, ready to go to all my MONDAY classes. Too bad it is Tuesday, and I am a dolt. Yes, I was in the right lecture hall at the right time, but not the right day! Luckily, my next real Tuesday class is at 11:30 so I didn't miss anything.

Here's a picture of what I would rather be doing: sleeping under the covers with Mildred!

So from about December 23 to January 15th, I was without a 'smartphone'. Feast your eyes on this bundle of technological joy!
My iPhone was sitting on my bed where I always put it to charge it, when the big oaf Gus came and jumped on my bed knocking my phone face down on the hardwood floor. I picked it up and was relieved because no cracks in the screen could be felt. Unfortunately, a quick click of the home screen revealed a white screen of death. A shattered LCD chip. A useless phone. Fast forward to the last month and I have been using my 4 year old go phone. I could call, I could text with a bit of trouble, but nothing else. No camera, internet, facebook application (God forbid!). But over the period I got to use this phone, I really enjoyed it. I wasn't constantly checking my phone or looking at facebook. I was truly invested in the then and now, and it was nice. I held out as long as I could from deciding to buy a new iPhone. For a while I thought I wasn't going to buy one because I was really enjoying the simplicity of being "unattached". But last night I caved and got a new phone before I left for Norman. I kind of wish that I was strong enough to keep my trusty old go phone, but in school my phone isn't just a phone, but my information source, iPod, map, and email. I gave in, and I am not proud of it.

Thank goodness for my iPhone though, because I stupidly left my MacBook charger at home, so I will definitely need to be decreasing my computer usage until Friday or so. Back into simplicity, I suppose!

Two atoms are walking down the street.
The first atom turns to the other and says "HEY! You stole an electron from me!"
"Are you sure?" asks the second atom.
The first atom replies, "Yeah, I'm positive!"

I can't wait to be home and exchange silly riddles with ol' Goofy Dan.


By the way, what's a chiropractor's favorite music genre?

HIP-POP!

I am currently taking an honors course entitled 'The Atom and the American Experience' which analyzes the effects of atomic energy on American life, politics, and science. What is cool about the course is that it is an OU President's Dream course, meaning my professors (who have PhD's from Columbia...you know) received about $25,000 extra to enhance the class. With this money, my professors are bringing in throughout the semester guest speakers who are experts in their fields.

We read about 100 pages a night of different papers, books, and biographies. Currently, we are reading Arsenals of Folly by Richard Rhodes. Richard Rhodes is probably the foremost expert on all things atomic energy, as probably agreed by the entire scientific historical community. He has written 23 books, with his latest The Twilight of the Bomb just released last month. Next week, we have the pleasure of being lectured by this Pulitzer prize winner in the intimate setting of about 30 students (followed by a formal, public lecture that night). I never thought that I would be so excited about something so strange! But I think it's a wonderful opportunity, especially as a freshman, to hear such an influential figure speak. If you ever get the chance and are interested in the history of atomic energy/nuclear weapons/the Cold War, or anything else pertaining to this, please read Arsenals of Folly. It is really very interesting. The first two chapters deal with the Chernobyl disaster and the history of Gorbachev, from the time he was born until he took command of the Soviet Union.

GoIng off on a tangent, this class made me very interested in careers in atomic energy. Obviously, my goal is to get into medical school. But if I do not get in, or decide it is not for me, I have started researching Health Physicists, specifically a Nuclear Health Physicist. Go HERE to read about, via the CDC. I won't bore you with the details, but it really just channels my inner-nerd reading about this stuff. Isn't it cool?

The Honors Program at OU makes me really happy I ended up here, despite some of my recent feelings. I am taught by some of the most intelligent, knowledgable people I have ever met, graduates from Princeton, Brown, Columbia, the works. I only hope I get to submerge myself in all the classes these people teach.