inside Rhodes » Sarah

Sunshine and Summer Time

Sarah — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 02:11:51 +0000

That’s right blog readers; I am back in Memphis– home of the blues and some pretty awesome barbecue! While I have not spent much time walking 10 feet off of Beale, I did spend part of my first week back on Beale. You see, on June 9th the Rhodes Institute for Regional Studies (you know… the program I’ve been talking up) began! The first week was spent learning about local history. We visited such places as the W.C. Handy House, Slave Haven, the Memphis Rock and Soul Museum. We also went to Tunica to visit the Tunica River Park. If you are looking to know more about Memphis, these are some pretty great places to visit. If you want my opinion on them, send a comment my way!

Anyway, I have spent the past three weeks researching. I know that I initially told you that I would be researching protective effects against neurodegenerative disorders, but some things have changed. We are actually now researching the long term effects of methylphenidate (Ritalin). One of the main things we are testing are the addictive properties of the drug and whether living in an enriched environment can effect the tendency to become addicted. Below are some pictures taken by another student working in the lab (courtesy of Stephen Spainhour).

Any free time that I have had so far this summer I have tried to spend at my lake house. I had my first experience with wake boarding and my first experience with… a banana. That’s right, a banana- not the kind you eat. Rather, the kind you ride. Okay, that sounds dirty, if I dare say so… see the pictures for a better description!

As you can see, it was fun! Also in the past week, Stephen came to visit me. It was really exciting and we had a fantastic time together. Here is a picture that he took of one of the sunsets we watched at the lake. (You know how I love my sunsets!)

This summer has been an interesting journey so far. I’ve been applying to med schools, taking the mcat, doing research and learning how to be in a long distance relationship. I’m almost done with my applications; I’m done with the mcat (at least for the ‘09 application cycle); our research is going strong (despite some problems in the beginning); And I learn something new about my relationship every day; all of which is absolutely fantastic!

Anyway, I’m off to see if maybe I can see some 4th of July fireworks from campus somewhere….

Happy 4th! Happy Summer!

I look forward to hearing from you.

Peace,

Sarah

I survived :-)

Sarah — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 03:14:06 +0000

Hey there loyal blog readers,

I will be keeping this one rather short, but I thought it would be appropriate to let you know that I have finished with the MCAT… for now at least! I began my day at 5:30, sat for the test at 7:30, was out a little after noon and home just before 2. Needless to say, I am exhausted despite the rather long nap that I managed to get in this afternoon.

Now is the time to focus on applications so that I can get them submitted as early as possible (ie within the next few weeks).

Before that, however, is a trip to my lake house.

I will blog again from Memphis! Below are some pictures from my day…

(1) If you look closely you will see a deer feeding underneath that tree. This was taken at about 6am as I was leaving my house.

(2) This picture is of the sunrise. That’s right, the sun RISE not set. I had forgotten how beautiful the sunrise can be.

(3) This last picture was taken on my way home. I couldn’t help but capture mile number 111,111 on my car!

Sorry for the lack of intellectual content in the blog, but right now my thoughts are still too exhausted and scientifically minded.

I will be back on the blogging scene in a week!

Peace.

Sarah

3 days and counting…

Sarah — Wed, 28 May 2008 19:52:51 +0000

’til I take the glorious, or not-so-glorious MCAT. Cue fake enthusiasm now. Advice from a few good friends: Sarah, stop studying!

It is hard, but since I received a pretty awesome Facebook message from an even more awesome soon-to-be first year med student , I have been met with an uncanny calmness. I may not be able to explain it, but it is very welcome. I have tried throughout this process to remind myself that this test is not the end of the world and will not determine whether or not I have a good life. However, I found myself falling into the state that most pre-meds seem to get into: the OMG state where anything and everything evokes panic.

For instance, I was trying to relax by watching a made for t.v. movie. Don’t laugh, but it very well may have been a Lifetime movie. (If it wasn’t, it should have been.) This commercial came on advertising some form of blood pressure medicine and I immediately started attempting to recall the “JAB lab flow chart from hell”. Essentially this was a flow chart from my animal physiology course that traces what happens in all of the organ systems when there is a change in blood pressure and how they work to regulate it. So as I was busy thinking about angiotensinogen, ANGI, ACE (found in the lungs), ANGII etc., my movie had progressed through nearly a half hour of plot development and I was thoroughly baffled.

By the time it ended, I had deduced that the mom had been hounding her daughter about sexual responsibility. And while one would expect that it would have been the daughter who would get pregnant, the mom became pregnant…………….definitely a Lifetime movie (I just searched their website to see if there was anything that fit this description and this is what came up.

So that is the MCAT journey thus far. After the MCAT I will be going to my family’s Lake house in Mississippi for some R & R with the whole crew. The whole crew being my dad, stepmom, sister who will be 5 on June 4th, and almost 16 year old brother.

It will be fun, sunshine, water, bikes, boats, tubes… really it’s the life. And, this place has some of the most beautiful sunsets that I have seen. I went up there alone this weekend to get some studying done sans 5 year old and I only wish I could be this undistracted and undisrupted in my residence hall sometimes! I was extraordinarily effective and I got to watch the sunset three nights in a row, each one of them different and each one of them beautiful. I kept wishing that I had a real camera and not just my iPhone. Though my phone takes decent pictures, it couldn’t capture it the way I was seeing it.

In just over a week, I will be back at Rhodes researching with the Rhodes Institute for Regional Studies which is part of the CARES program. I have talked about this before and you should expect me to talk about it significantly more in the coming months! I will be researching protective factors against various neurodegenerative disorders using rodent models and their implications in society. In addition, we will be working on a Neuroscience Roadshow to bring around to Memphis City school children.

I am so very excited! However, as a science person I am a bit hesitant about this more historically based parts of the program. While that is most certainly the point of the regional studies aspect of the program, I do worry about my ability to truly discuss history with others and have enlightening discussions. I am sure that it will be fine despite my apprehensions.

Lastly, throughout the year I have run into people who say, “hey… I’ve been reading your blog!” Sometimes they continue to talk about what they may have read, but sometimes it ends there leaving me with many questions. All of those natural human insecurities running through my head: How many typos were there? Which post did he read? What did she think?

My most loyal readers has been Stephen’s mom, Betty (Photo below courtesy of Stephen Rintoul). We’ll be talking on the phone and he will say, “My mom said that you haven’t updated your blog recently…” It is great because it always makes me want to update when I know people are reading. So, thanks, Betty (and all of you other readers), not only for reading, but for encouraging future posts!

Anyway, loyal blog readers, this is just as much your space as it is mine. If there is something you want me to blog about, let me know! If you have questions, comments, funny song lyrics, or life goals you want to share feel free to comment, Facebook me, e-mail me, and if you look really hard you can even find me on Myspace. (You need to friend me to see me on myspace though, so there is a bit less anonymity :-)).

Looking forward to hearing from you!

(And feel free to send some good thoughts my way on Saturday morning!!)

Until next time,

Sarah

Country Adventures

Sarah — Thu, 15 May 2008 15:10:20 +0000

Hey blog readers,

Since I have started blogging, I have given you plenty of insight into both Memphis and Rhodes. Well, now I am home for three weeks and while I am here I am going to write about life in the country, the MCAT and medschool apps.

Today is your first installment of country adventures. There is always something happening at my house in Franklinton, LA. For instance, within just an hour of getting home my golden retriever, Angie, got stuck in a big pipe that we keep behind the machine shed and we had to rescue her. It took a little while to get her out and she was a little shaken up, but fine nonetheless. Our other dog, Chubby, who we found shortly after Sam died kept going in the pipe to see her and then coming back out. I figure he was saying, “Really, now, it’s not that hard. Watch!”

He’s much smaller than Angie though! Here’s a picture, because he’s adorable. I have given you a picture of Angie before, so feel free to look back through the posts.

The second part of the country adventures has been ongoing since before I got home. One day, when my dad and little sister Logan (she’s almost 5) were doing stuff on the tractor (I’m not really sure what…) they found a bunny nest with four or five baby bunnies. They were no more than a week old with closed eyes, no mom in sight and even worse my dogs found the nest. Anyway, when dogs see little bitty living creatures they don’t have the same “aww” response that we have. In fact, it’s more of a “yum…. foooood!” So my family decided to raise them (the four that survived the pups). Everyone who my step mom, Jamie, talked to said that when people try to raise bunnies from such a young age there is a 90% mortality rate. But guess what! They are still alive and kicking or rather jumping. Their eyes have opened and though they are still being bottle fed twice a day, they are also eating grass and alfalfa sprouts. Here is a picture of Tiny, the runt of the litter.

Anyway, that’s all of the adventures that I have for now!

I think I’m going to get back to studying some Bio for the MCAT. I haven’t looked at my books in a couple of days and I should since I take the MCAT in 16 days.

Anyway, as always… feel free to comment!

Peace.

Sarah

I don’t believe in good-byes

Sarah — Sun, 11 May 2008 15:02:59 +0000

So I said that I was not going to post until I was finished with finals, and though I started working on this one during a reading day, I have just come back to it so here is my brief moment of excitement, “I’M A SENIOR!” Also, we just updated our blogging software so I am exploring all of the cool new features… I’m really liking the fact that the behind the scenes stuff is orange and blue now!So… what now? The residence halls are empty and I am jealous! You see, as a summer resident I don’t move into my new room until a week after graduation (which was yesterday).

I was an usher for graduation and so I was very close to everything that was going on. There were about six Sarah Elizabeth’s in their graduating class and every time I heard that name I imagined it being me and my excitement has mounted. I cannot wait. But at the same time… I most definitely can. I mean, I shouldn’t wish away my time, right? This is the first year that I approached graduation with a bit of hesitancy. Some of my most wonderful friends are leaving Rhodes to start lives in new places and I am, needless to say, going to miss them terribly. On the bright side, I have a lot of neat places I need to visit now like Alaska.

I don’t really believe in good-bye’s, but I feel like they are an important part of life. I guess I don’t like them because saying good-bye feels so final. Sure, it is probable that I won’t see most of the graduating seniors ever again, but I hope to keep in touch with my closer friends. So I think it’s best to say, “See you later!” or “Have a great summer!” or “Keep me updated on where life is taking you and we will try to run into one another!” That latter one is a mouthful!

For instance, while I will be here over the summer Stephen will be home in North Carolina. And then, next semester, he will be in Washington D.C. visiting American University as part of a semester long journalism program. I would hate to think that as he gets ready to leave tomorrow that I am saying good-bye. At some point in the summer, he will visit me and I will visit him making this yet another one of those see ya later moments.

The end of the year is bittersweet. It is much different than highschool where we said “Have a good summer!” and then the following weekend, we were all at so-and-so’s house bored out of our minds together. But that’s okay. I have some great and fun memories to get me to the next semester… and I’ll be at Rhodes all summer doing research so that has to be fun.

Anyway, I’m going to leave you with a picture from RA fun at the zoo. I took this from Regina Simmons’ (ResLife) facebook pictures.

Anyway… Happy Summer! Questions about graduation, RA’s, pretty much anything Rhodes? Comment here!

Peace,

Sarah

Finals Week

Sarah — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 16:08:05 +0000

Tomorrow is the first official day of finals. While I don’t have a final until Tuesday, I am about to become one of the most unreachable people on campus. However, before I retreat into my studious hole I wanted to send another post your way to give insight into campus life during finals.

While the academic calendar typically shows the last day of classes as Friday, April 25th, the truth is that the last day of class is actually a Thursday, because on that last Friday we have the Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity Symposium here at Rhodes. This is when all students have the opportunity to showcase what they have been doing all year. Click on the link to go to this year’s program and get an idea of the wide variety of things in which our students are involved.

Since I had Physics homework due that night, I only went to one program to support Stephen and I had a great time. Stephen presented with the help of six students from Snowden Elementary where he taught robotics twice a week for both semesters. This captured the attention of the local media and he was on the front page of the Local section of the Commercial Appeal (our newspaper) and on their online videos known as AppealTV. Click here to see what they had to say!

After URCAS and a little bit of relaxation, I headed over to the BCLC to get ready for the 5th annual BCLC Bash sponsored by C.H.E.E.R.S., the peer ed group of which I am a part! As a BACCHUS affiliate our typical activities are usually somewhat educational in nature, but the BCLC Bash is held from 11pm to 2am just before finals weekend to give students a place to relax without necessity for drinking. We had open gym, an inflatable, free massages, food, a band, coloring, crafts, henna tattoos, board games and more. We had a great turn out of over 150 people even though it was storming. It was our last event to be hosted with the graduating seniors so in a way it was a bit nostalgic. We finished cleaning up by 4am and I was asleep pretty much as soon as my head hit the pillow! Below is a picture of The Miner 49ers (the student band that played):

And yesterday… I had a day reserved for myself. Since my first final is not until Tuesday, I knew that it would be okay for me to use one day to just get a bit rejuvenated. Last weekend I had a horrible stomach bug and was glued to my bed and it really felt like I hadn’t had a weekend. So now, after taking my two days, I am ready to go. As I said in the last post, bring on the finals!

It is really important during this stressful and sleep depriving time of any college student’s life that you try to take time for yourself when you can. Sometimes, this may only be a quick dinner on campus with a friend, or 15 minutes of simply putting everything away and taking a deep breath. While you shouldn’t make a habit of it, never be afraid to look at a professors late work policy if you feel that an all-nighter is not your style. What I don’t suggest is what I have seen several people doing this week: It is not a good idea to go out drinking before the week of finals.

___________________________________________________________

Some information from my BACCHUS resources.

The following statistics show on average, students who drink the most alcohol receive the lowest grades:

“A” students average 3.1 per week
“B” students average 4.4 drinks per week
“C” students averages 5.6 drinks per week
“D” and “F” students average 9.5 drinks per week

Attention and Concentration

There is some evidence that chronic drinkers have a hard time keeping their attention focused and maintaining their concentration. Attentiveness and concentration are mental functions used in the classroom on a daily basis and are critical parts of the learning process. The degree to which these functions are affected depends on how much alcohol is consumed. Chronic long-term abusers of alcohol experience the major effects. However, “social drinkers” also develop deficits in their mental functioning. The more alcohol a person has when they go out, the more likely they are to experience negative effects.

___________________________________________________________

This is not the time of year to test this one out! To relieve stress: go for a run, vent to friends, visit the counseling center, visit the BCLC, or do cartwheels down the hallway (as long as you do it quietly since it happens to be 24-hour quiet hours.

Okay, wonderful people, I am out… ready to embark on final exam studying. I am just six days away from senior year. Wow!

I will blog again when I am a senior!

Good luck with all the challenges that will face you in the coming week. Comment if you have questions, remarks, well-wishes… insert your own option here…

Signing off to study!

Sarah

April showers… are gone! Bring on the finals.

Sarah — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 23:53:58 +0000

Hey there!

Long time, no talk. My apologies for having not written in a while… I mean I know that you must have been clinging to your seats waiting to see what would happen next in this college life of mine… (just kidding). But I will say that the number of people that tell me they’ve read my blog is constantly growing.

Anyway, it seems I start almost every blog off the same way by saying I have been so busy lately. And… I’m happy to report that this week is no different! Between my current classes, scheduling classes for next year, finding rec writers for med school applications, studying for the MCAT, RA everything and life por lo general… I am swamped! And I am thriving. I work so well when I have to juggle 4,305,399 things. Yes, I may get burned out and not be a very social human being, but when I sit down to work I have no choice but to get things done… so the whole concept of procrastination floats away on a cloud and I am met with multi-tasking.

About this multi-tasking thing… I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned it before, but I think it is something that becomes pretty necessary in college. Some are better at it than others and I’m pretty sure I’m one of the better when under pressure. For instance I am currently on AIM, writing a blog and working on a paper… and I am legitimately juggling them all. When I get stuck here I switch to the paper and make some edits and then every time that little AIM icon starts jumping around on my screen saying “pick me! pick me!” I continue one of a number of conversations that I am having.

So anyway… if you’ve read the other blogs you have read either Christine’s or Tyler’s posts you have heard that the weekend before last was Rites. Rites of Spring, Rites to Play and Rites to Play Harder. Since Tyler and Christine have both done a great job writing about that I am going to direct you to their posts for information about all of that fun and I will leave you with a picture of some Mortar Board members (including myself) making cotton candy at Rites to Play.

Onward…

I met with Robert Koch in the Admissions office to talk about the blogs and I was saying how I hadn’t talked much at all about this whole medical school process. So I will brief you a little bit on all of that. Despite the fact that some believe that I may not be the best candidate for med school just yet, I have decided to apply for the 2009 cycle. I have a decent GPA, the motivation, the volunteer experience and I will be getting research and more clinical experience this summer. My past few weeks have been filled with finding the faculty members who I believe can and will write good recommendations for me. My advice to all of you pre-med hopefuls establish relationships with professors early; go to their office hours, speak up in class, be a genuine person. Talking to potential rec writers has been nothing short of a motivating experience as they want to see me reach my goals nearly as much as I do. (Except I secretly think my paintball playing advisor wants me to go into Neuroscience research!)

I invite you to ask me whatever questions about this process you would like. I am not the archetype of a pre-med student, but I am going through the process and hope to really engage you in both the highs and the lows as I take the MCAT on May 31st and apply in June.

As today was the last day of classes, I’m going to go celebrate with a good dinner off-campus… yum! We’ve reached the final stretch…. bring on the finals; I’m ready. (I think.)

Signing off,
Sarah

An all Rhodes Weekend

Sarah — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 22:11:01 +0000

Many times when I write about my weekends, I am talking about sunsets and the river and the zoo…. basically all places Memphis, but not Rhodes. But this last weekend was a Rhodes-filled weekend so I thought I’d share!

First, on Friday night, I went to the Rhodes Choral Ensembles’ and Memphis Symphony Orchestra’s performance of Bach’s “Mass in B Minor.” It was beautiful. I know many people in Women’s chorus and in the Rhodes Singer’s so it was really great to go support them! The picture isn’t very good because I had to sit very far away…. but it’s the best I’ve got!

On Saturday morning was the AOII strikeout. This is where students can organize softball teams and raise money to fight arthritis! The RAs lost first round… but that’s okay because there was another really cool event going on in Fischer Gardens!

The New Orleans, alum, students, parents, and faculty hosted a New Orleans style crawfish boil. After throwing the first pitch at the softball game, President Troutt even ventured over to hang out with us and eat some crawfish! Though it was interrupted by a thunderstorm, nothing dampened our New Orleanian spirits; the party was just moved to underneath the Bellingrath awning. I had a great time and it brought a little bit of home up to Rhodes which was nice. I think it would be really neat if other Rhodes chapters did the same with some of their local favorites.

Next on the agenda (on Sunday) was student Allocations, where I proposed a budget for CHEERS for next year. My fingers are crossed for good funding. But we’ll see :-).

Then after some time to get on top of my work, I went to play intramural volleyball with the RA’s where we lost. But all that matters is that it was really fun! Well… except for the fact that I jammed my finger which was interesting. I noticed that my finger was bruising and swelling during the game, but I kept playing. And then, after the game, I has a reception at President Troutt’s house with the Bellingrath finalists (who were AMAZING). So I quickly ran across campus and changed and went to the President’s house and that was where I finally iced my finger. Mrs. Troutt was so good to me! She wanted to help me out so she helped me fix my plate and got my drink for me. Those are the times that I realize Rhodes is pretty cool.

And that was it in a nutshell.

This week has been pretty normal. Classes are chugging along, nothing too exciting. Even my physics lab this week was just a tutorial and I hear that my organic lab tomorrow will be brief. I had a class canceled today which was nice in some ways, but in others, I need as much time in that philosophy class as I can get. Philosophy is really hard for an empiricist.

Well, I’m headed to the rat to get some dinner before more housing selection and volleyball…

Signing off!

Sarah

The Month of March

Sarah — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 02:46:31 +0000

has been short. Very short. With spring break the first week and Easter break last week, we have officially had 7 full days without class. One may think that this is amazing, magnificent, wonderful, something to rejoice about, but really… though I am grateful for the breaks and relaxing, we are still expected to do the same amount of work in a significantly shorter amount of time.

I have seen it this week in my own classes and in my friends’ and residents’ lives. This is stressful.

About my Easter Break (a quick breakdown):

Thursday: I slept in. I went to Mud Island and watched the sunset. There are no words! See the photos below taken by Stephen.

Friday: My 21st birthday. While we did go down to Beale, there was no craziness. That is way overrated and not a good idea. I will remember every moment of my birthday… from the movie being filmed in front of the Peabody (Soul Men with Samuel L. Jackson and Bernie Mac), to hanging out with Stephen in Overton Park, to having dinner with some great ResLife people at Boscos. (Picture below also taken by Stephen)

Saturday: This morning Stephen and I went to the Homegoing Celebration (Memorial Service) for Ms. Loretta (see last post). It was a pretty emotionally tough thing to sit through, but it was beautiful and well worth it. It began with tears and ended with lively singing, smiles, and hugs. Everyone there knew Ms. Loretta in completely different ways, and it seemed we were all able to come together so beautifully. After that, I took a nap and headed out to Oak Alley to re-read Daniel Dennett’s ‘Quining Qualia’ for a philosophy paper that I had to write.

Sunday: This is where the “Oh no…” moment hit. I realized “ummm…. I haven’t really done any work in the past few days” soooo I went to the library!

And then there was the craziness of this week.

But guess what… It’s almost FRIDAY.

So… I’m excited. This weekend means AOII Strikeout, NOLA Crawfish Boil, and a reception at President Troutt’s house with the Bellingrath finalists.

Any of you who are Bellingrath finalists, I will see you Sunday! I am so excited to meet you!

Peace Out and hope to see you around,

Sarah

P.S. you should really check out the ResLife Blog

Almost famous…

Sarah — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 02:47:00 +0000

Well, not really, but I just got a knock on my door and was greeted by two of my residents and a prospective student. And guess what… she knew me from my blog! It’s an eerie thing to meet someone who knows more about you than you know about them, but its very cool!

If you’re around campus for any reason, and you see me… feel free to wave, holler, do a happy dance. I’ll be glad to say “hey”. And as I’ve said before, if you have questions about anything in a particular post or anything about Rhodes in general, send them my way. I’m not an expert, but I’ve got some Rhodes experience!

Anyway, so before I left on break, I told you about a new life goal that I was about to fulfill. Ready to know what it is? I got to go snorkeling in Belize. *insert pre-teen squeal*. It was beautiful, fantastic, wonderful, everything I thought it would be and more. Basically. Oh and life goal 937,009 was accomplished as well. I held a monkey! Actually, it was kinda tossed at me when I asked a young boy in Honduras, “¿Es un mono?” and there was no warning. I think you can see the shock on my face.

Anyway, Spring Break was great for the soul and I came into this week ready to work and be on top of things. And I was. I had an organic quiz and a physics test. I’ve been waking up early, going to bed at a decent time. And because of all of that, I treated myself to a Jerry’s snow cone and a pedicure.

I had a really cool lab today in organic chemistry using synthetic dyes and various different types of fabrics. I usually do enjoy organic lab, but this one was so fun and very easy. My favorite part was that two of the dyes we used dyed different fabrics, different colors and then we had to show which fabrics were which by using a key. See the picture below:

Actually, now that I think about it, I had a really great time in my physics lab on Tuesday as well. I’m not going to lie to you. I am not a big physics fan. I struggle with it; I get very frustrated; and I pity my lab partner for having to put up with me. Luckily, Stephen is my lab partner. Anyway, in that lab we set up a circuit and using the resistance and voltage, we found the current in different parts of the circuit. We compared our experimental values to our theoretical values and are largest error was 3.2%. I mean, that pretty much makes us awesome!

On a not so happy note, a member of our Rhodes housekeeping staff passed away this morning. I’ve told you so many times about the community at Rhodes and it always focuses on the students, the professors, and residence life. But today, with Ms. Loretta’s passing happening earlier this morning, I sat with the Bellingrath housekeepers Ms. Cornett and Ms. Carmen as they comforted one another and we talked about how great Ms. Loretta was. It was then that I felt a whole new sense of community. In an email that was sent out to all staff and students, her supervisor said the following about her: “She was also fun-loving and full of life. If she ever had a problem you wouldn’t know about it. And when I saw her this morning she was as fun-loving as ever.” And from everyone I’ve talked to today, this couldn’t be more true. The sense of community here is always present, but in tough times, it becomes very palpable. I am so thankful for this. My prayers are with her family, friends and co-workers.

Well, that’s all I’ve got for you right now. I’m going to go continue being on top of things so that I may shower, sleep… you know… those essential things in life! As always, comments, questions, complaints are all appreciated.

Rhodes love,

Sarah