Green Spring Warming

Last night my roommate John and I spontaneously decided to go for a hike. We invited some friends in the ward and took off. We went to Stewart Falls. The hike is about 2 miles and you start from the parking lot at the trailhead for Mt. Timpanogas just above Sundance. It was nice to get back to nature. Spring is just barely arriving in the mountains. I plan to go on a more extensive hike tomorrow for Memorial Day. It's sort of become a Memorial Day tradition.

I had a pleasant surprise on Tuesday. That was the day I finally got my MCAT scores back. I had been anxiously waiting for them to be released for a month and I really did not know what to expect. The last hour of my cell biology class was really just wasted time. I could hardly pay attention to a thing my professor was saying. When I finally got home and saw the score - 37P - I was startled but very pleased. In all of my practice tests I had never scored higher than 32-33. No more studying for the MCAT. I honestly didn't study as well as I should have, so maybe I got a little bit lucky. I'm grateful for my luck and that I can move on with my medical school application. Acceptance rates for my score and GPA are around 30%, so by no means is getting into medical school a done deal.

Speaking of which, I really have no clue where I want to go. While talking with my doctor this week, he said with my MCAT I should apply to a few of my dream schools, other good schools, and then to a few backups. I was thinking, "And what are my dream schools?" The only factors that I currently use to differentiate between schools is location, tuition, and rankings. I know rankings often misrepresent or fail to represent things that matter most to me however.

Friday evening was the night for night games. The ward played capture the flag. I enjoyed it until no one could find the flags. Then we tried some other games and they were a bust. I met up with Jimmy and Nicole's posse later to play Commando. It was all right. I don't think I liked it too much because it's a game that makes you run like a maniac and hide like a frightened animal. It was a little too frantic for me. Plus I injured myself earlier in the night and I kept on making it worse through the evening. At one point I fell to my face on the ground, but my fist was under my chest. It sent pain up and down my trachea and made my breathing sensitive for a few minutes.

My Lost Friend

My relationship over the past few months has come to an end. I've been a devoted, sometimes obsessed fan of Lost. I had never watched an episode until about 4 months ago. I've now watched all of the episodes. I couldn't help myself. I just got sucked in. The productions were masterful and even poetic at times. I watched the final episode tonight and I've been feeling too antsy, too preoccupied to move on. I loved the absolute drama, the shocking twists, the killer cliffhangers. What really made the show what it is, though, is the constant focus on character development. The finale put the finishing touch on each and every one of their stories.
For sure there are a lot of unanswered questions, but I feel like those mysteries served their purpose just fine by setting up high drama. It's not really necessary to answer all those questions, especially if it doesn't contribute to the quality of the show. This last episode was another wonderful production, and I appreciate the sentimental side of the ending for the closure it brought me. I will go through Lost withdrawals in the near future, but my suffering would be a lot worse if the finale had been any different.

The beginning

I figure this could be a good way of sharing my life with family and friends. A quick note about the title - I frequently feel that I'm wandering, in the sense that I don't really know where I'm supposed to end up or how I'm going to get there. It's almost like I'm blind and I have to feel my way through things. I believe my ramblings will show that.

I was born to be a professional student. I proved that once again this week after I scored well on my first two tests of spring term. I'm enrolled in biochemistry and cell biology. I wonder what talents or character traits I have that make me so successful in the classroom. Outside of school I think I'm rather mediocre.

During the past few weeks I've been getting the most satisfaction out of this computer course for Spanish speakers. It's helping me do something I love - learn Spanish - while being able to share some of my abilities with those who really do need help. As of yet I haven't risked talking much with the students, but occasionally I will end up having a real conversation in Spanish. My ability to speak is improving, but I feel like I've still got some cotton in my ears when it comes to understanding. It depends a lot on the person I'm talking with too, but I've still got a lot of work to do there.

I've been enrolled in an EMT class for about a month now. While I do not have any ambitions to become an EMT or paramedic I have enjoyed learning everything I have. Plus I've taken my first vitals as a result of the class. Little things like that boost my confidence little be little. I'm not looking forward to finishing the approximately 70 patient assessments I need to do in the next month. If you have any children you would like me to assess please let me know!

During spring term I have been shadowing a doctor from the Department of Health. It was not exactly the kind of doctor I expected to shadow for the "internship" I signed up for. He doesn't really practice medicine for his day job, although he does do some on the side. His main position is squarely in the field of public health. I know there's a relation there, but I'd like to be involved in medicine on a personal basis. I have been a little frustrated and bored with some of the things we've done, such as sit in on county commissioner meetings, go through his mail, and see the art gallery at the health department. I did enjoy the evening he volunteered at a clinic. I got to work on my Spanish there a bit too. But besides that we connected personally with people who needed help. That brought satisfaction.

My frustrations grew this past week after I went to class and listened to the cool things others were doing for their internships, like observing surgeries. Oh well. I do get a lot of opportunities to talk with my doctor, and he is supportive and interested in my career, so I guess I can't complain too much.

Last night a lot of people in the ward got together to play wallyball, missionary tag, cops and robbers, and then watch a movie. I ditched before the movie so I could learn about ATP synthesis and the electron transport chain. (At 10 PM, and yes my studying was actually surprisingly productive.) After I escaped the cops and we were waiting for the last stragglers, I thought, "This is just the kind of thing we're told not to do by general authorities - hanging out." For better or worse though we had a good time hanging out last night. When the honest alternative would be nothing at all social, I don't really think hanging out is so bad.

I'm listening to grooveshark. It's my new imeem, only better. I used to have this massive playlist on imeem of about 400 songs. Well that's massive for me anyways. When imeem got taken over by myspace it really ticked me off. There went my playlist! With grooveshark I've started making that list again. It has the convenience of making playlists like imeem, but with a much smoother setup. It's been a daily diversion for the last couple weeks. I love free music!