Irony

So the past few days I have been studying Chemistry non-stop. Usually when I study chem, I do not understand nor retain a thing. I get frustrated and I tend to give up. Well, I don't know what I am doing differently this time, but I'm actually understanding everything I am studying. Which is very ironic, considering that after I take my final for the class tomorrow, I will be done with the subject forever. Two torturous semesters of it, and it all clicks the last week. I guess I'll do well on the final at least...

Bummer Summer

I kind of don't want school to be over. Besides the fact that I'll miss the freedom and all my friends here, I'm setting myself up to have a pretty crappy summer. I'm continuing at my intern job at an insurance agency which, although it pays very well and has the reliable schedule of Monday-Friday 8:30-4:30, it's not the most thrilling job ever and takes up a lot of time. In addition to working during the week, I will also be taking not only Anatomy and Physiology I but Anatomy and Physiology II in two separate summer sessions at Nassau Community College. This is because the Anatomy class I needed to get into at Stony Brook for the Fall was completely full and did not even have a wait list. So, after I get out of work I get to go to class Monday-Thursday from 6:30-10:30. If all this was not enough, I will also volunteer at Mercy Medical Center on Saturday mornings so I can start getting experience in the medical world as well as boost my resume that I will have to make up next year when I apply to Stony Brook's nursing program. So besides having little to no time to see all my friends from home and hang out and relax, I will also have to miss my one vacation of the year which is camping for a week out in Montauk with my family. Needless to say, I think starting school will be more of a vacation than my real vacation. Yay summer.

Believe

Vietnam Memorial

New Perspective

So the semester is finally over. It honestly does not feel like it, it seems like there should be another two or three weeks left. Yet, the reality is, three finals are all that stand between me and summer. Freshman year is over. I survived. It certainly was not what I imagined it would be, although now that I think about it, I'm not quite sure what I really expected from my first year of college. I think it ended up being pretty eye-opening. I used to go to a cookie cutter, white bread of kind of high school and lived in a cookie cutter, white bread kind of town. Stony Brook is far different from any of that, in the best way possible. I wanted to get away from all the bland, unoriginal snobs that I've lived among all my life and coming here let me do that. I've met so many unique people here and had so many original experiences for which I truly am grateful. So here's to freshman year, may sophomore year be even better.

Family

D.C.

Fragranced Defeat

"To be overcome by the fragrance of flowers is a delectable form of defeat."
~Beverly Nichols

Going up? going down?

"The world is like a grand staircase, some are going up and some are going down."
Samuel Johnson

Next Semester

So this past week I met with my advisor to discuss what I should do next semester as far as classes go. To be honest, I'm slightly terrified of the course load that I'm destined to undertake. I'm on the pre-nursing track and therefore have to follow a pretty specific track to get into the nursing program itself. I have to take basically all science classes and from what I've heard from my upperclassmen friends they are all very difficult and have a lot of work attached to them. I know it's going to be a very tough semester, as the last two have been. I just hope that I'll be able to manage it all and to keep my grades up so that I can make it into the nursing program here. Otherwise, I'm going to need a Plan B.....

Lovin' the break

So spring break's been pretty cool so far. This past weekend I went to visit my best friend, Michaela, at Holy Cross College. She's my closest friend so to go see her was the perfect way to start off the break. We had the best time ever, I met all her great friends who were all so nice and welcomed me right into their group. We went out both Friday and Saturday night and had two insane nights of fun, then hung out and caught up all day Saturday and Sunday. I hated to leave Monday morning but spent most of the day in Manhattan with my other close friend, Anne, who is on break now too. Currently I have landed in Washington, D.C. on a family vacation and it is simply beautiful. Now I'm looking forward to summer vacation so I can do this stuff all day. :) Here's to spring break!

Playing with some random pictures

Playing with texture and focus

Roomies' Still Lives

My roommates are taking a painting class and recently had to do still lives. They took pictures of them using my camera & I decided to play around with them.

Un-send

Ever say or write something and instantly regret it? Well, today I got in a huge argument with my mom on the phone. As soon as I hung up I went to let out my frustration on my best friend through a text where I said some awful things about my mom. Guess who received the text? Not my friend Lauren. Yes, my mom got the message. Which I realized the second I clicked "Send." For about 5 seconds I went numb, contemplating whether it was actually possible to un-send a text. Funny joke. In a panic I instantly called my mom back, not even knowing what I would say except how sorry I was and how I didn't actually mean what I said, it was just my frustration coming out. She of course was completely taken aback by what I had said & simply said to call her once I calmed down. I'm not sure I'm ever going to calm down from this. Spring break should be a blast......

Boston

Maternal Conflict

Maternal Conflict

24 and its relevance

One of my favorite shows on television right now is Fox's 24. The most basic premise of the show is that the main character, Jack Bauer, has to neutralize some kind of terrorist threat to the U.S. over the course of a day (aka 24 hours, get it?) It's not quite as simple as it sounds though, considering that the threat often changes in complexity and urgency and the men and women behind the the threat are often highly elusive or else working way below the actual mastermind of the plot. Also, he prefers to employ more extreme measures for stopping the threat at hand, such as "going dark" in undercover operations and brutal interrogations that generally include both threats and torture. I think this show does a great job of juxtaposing the issue of ethics and humanity in dealing with hardened criminals and terrorists with the issue of determining effective means of extracting information from these men and women in order to combat crime and terrorism. I also think that this show is so popular because these issues that it raises hit very close to home as far as our nation's current fight against terrorism and controversy over interrogation techniques.

Hazy Walk to Chem