sharing different heartbeats
After a long talk on the phone with my mother last night, during which I cried, I've decided not to pursue medicine. This is momentous, dear reader, because for the first time in my memory, I really do not know what I'm going to do with my life, but it's a wonderful feeling. I feel liberated, and entitled now to do whatever I love. Instead of sequences of biology, chemistry classes and medical school that stretch interminably ahead of me, there's the heady knowledge that my life might take any direction I want it to take. The primary motives behind my goal of practicing medicine were to gain approval from my math-teacher mother and scientist father, as well as to have a tool through which I could impact the world. I've already realized that I could achieve the latter through other mediums that come more easily (and pleasurably) to me, but my parents' approval and pride was something that I thought only a career in science or medicine would earn. And there was also the element of career stability and financial security, which I'm comfortable not having, but which my parents want me to have. But my mom is so wonderful, and she really helped me sort my feelings out.
So I am officially no longer pre-med. My revised course line up for next semester:
1. M 310 (Plan II Math)
2. BIO 301E (Plan II Biology - Problems in Modern Biology)
3. HIS 306N (Intro to the Middle East - Adjustment and Change in Modern Times)
4. E 603B (Plan II World Literature)
5. ARH 303 (Survey of Renaissance through Modern Art)*
*I'm no. 7 out of 8 on the waitlist for a Plan II social sciences course in anthropology; if I get into that class, I'll have to drop ARH 303.
The schedule:
MTWTHF9-10M 310M 310:)M 31010-11BIO 301EBIO 301E:)BIO 301E11-12E 603BE 603B:)E 603B12-1HIS 306NHIS 306N:)HIS 306N1-2BIO 301E:)<32-3ARH 303ARH 303:)<34-5ARH 303 :)<3
Wednesdays will be pretty intense with class from 9 to 3, but that's evened out with one class on Tuesdays, none on Thursdays, and finished by 1 pm on Fridays!
I'm also going to take Turkish next fall, and I'm considering majoring or minoring in Middle Eastern studies.
Lately, I've been in a funk, but I think it might be the onset of the mild SAD I seem to experience every winter. It might also be all the introspection and retrospection I'm doing for NaNoWriMo. I bought some pre-made pasta for dinner, but put it into my bag, where it spilled all over my wallet and coin purse. Now everything smells like marinara sauce, but I'm soaking my tomato-ed belongings in soapy water.
Today was humid. Tomorrow's election day. I voted on Friday for the first time in a national election, and it was extremely exciting; I got a sticker afterwards. I sent this article around already to some friends and family, but I think it's really important, so please read it if I haven't sent it to you. I'm hopeful that the Democrats will win in the House, but it will take a miracle to win the Senate. One can still hope, however. I'm not sure how I feel about the news of the verdict and sentence in Saddam's trial. Any big news so close to the election feels engineered and politicized to me, and it disturbs me that the administration might think news of Saddam's death sentence would sate Americans' desire for justice (or bloodlust?). I'm extremely opposed to the death penalty, even for men like Saddam. I just don't see how more death can help solve a society's problems.
So I am officially no longer pre-med. My revised course line up for next semester:
1. M 310 (Plan II Math)
2. BIO 301E (Plan II Biology - Problems in Modern Biology)
3. HIS 306N (Intro to the Middle East - Adjustment and Change in Modern Times)
4. E 603B (Plan II World Literature)
5. ARH 303 (Survey of Renaissance through Modern Art)*
*I'm no. 7 out of 8 on the waitlist for a Plan II social sciences course in anthropology; if I get into that class, I'll have to drop ARH 303.
The schedule:
MTWTHF9-10M 310M 310:)M 31010-11BIO 301EBIO 301E:)BIO 301E11-12E 603BE 603B:)E 603B12-1HIS 306NHIS 306N:)HIS 306N1-2BIO 301E:)<32-3ARH 303ARH 303:)<34-5ARH 303 :)<3
Wednesdays will be pretty intense with class from 9 to 3, but that's evened out with one class on Tuesdays, none on Thursdays, and finished by 1 pm on Fridays!
I'm also going to take Turkish next fall, and I'm considering majoring or minoring in Middle Eastern studies.
Lately, I've been in a funk, but I think it might be the onset of the mild SAD I seem to experience every winter. It might also be all the introspection and retrospection I'm doing for NaNoWriMo. I bought some pre-made pasta for dinner, but put it into my bag, where it spilled all over my wallet and coin purse. Now everything smells like marinara sauce, but I'm soaking my tomato-ed belongings in soapy water.
Today was humid. Tomorrow's election day. I voted on Friday for the first time in a national election, and it was extremely exciting; I got a sticker afterwards. I sent this article around already to some friends and family, but I think it's really important, so please read it if I haven't sent it to you. I'm hopeful that the Democrats will win in the House, but it will take a miracle to win the Senate. One can still hope, however. I'm not sure how I feel about the news of the verdict and sentence in Saddam's trial. Any big news so close to the election feels engineered and politicized to me, and it disturbs me that the administration might think news of Saddam's death sentence would sate Americans' desire for justice (or bloodlust?). I'm extremely opposed to the death penalty, even for men like Saddam. I just don't see how more death can help solve a society's problems.