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| It's been about two months since I posted, and rightfully so (read my
last post for justification). So, this post might be a little
long. And as usual, all stream of consciousness, so I apologize
ahead of time for a lack of cohesiveness.
First, and probably most amazingly, I graduated. I didn't think
this was that amazing until people I work with started asking. Here's how the typical conversation went:
Other Person: So, you're graduating, huh?
Me: Yeah.
Other Person: Wow, finally?
I
didn't know that being in college for five years was such a bad thing,
especially seeing as how I don't think I could have maintained my
sanity had I tried to pack a major, a completely unrelated minor, and
an honors thesis into any less than four and a half. I was able
to knock out my thesis in the last two months of the quarter, defended
the Thursday of dead week, and turned in the manuscript fifteen minutes
before the deadline. (Actually, I had it done earlier; I
just wanted to wait and turn it in at the last minute for old time's
sake.)
Now, let me tell you a few things about graduation:
1) DON'T go to the ceremony unless you have a well-designed exit
strategy. At OSU, they make this big effort to give every
graduate their diploma (or not; more on this later). I was about
the tenth of several thousand people to get theirs, so when people
started going back to their seats, I followed. And then the
ceremony kept going. And going. And going. After a
while, I saw graduates start to sneak out. But I was in the front
row! So, I waited through the entire God-forsaken thing, sang the
damn alma mater, and left four hours after lining up.
2) If you choose to wear leis (for those of you to whom this
applies), make sure that they are placed off of your skin. I have
a suntan around a mailei leaf on the back of my neck.
3) Try to find someone to buy regalia from. I have a $50
black gown I'm never going to wear again sitting on my bedroom floor.
4) Complete all of your graduation requirements before
graduating. Let me explain: Last year, I took an incomplete
grade in a health class that's offered once a year. It was the
last class I needed to fufill my honors degree requirements.
However, I didn't technically finish the class until June, after the
May 16 deadline for inclusion of classes on your diploma. So,
after graduation, the only thing I have to show for it (other
than the aforementioned tanline) is an IOU for a diploma. Sort of
"Dumb and Dumber" style, no?
But, even through all of that, I think that the members of my family
who are prouder of me than I am enjoyed it. I imagine my dad was
probably trying to strike up a conversation with anyone who would
listen, and I bet my grandma was crying. So, maybe it was worth
it after all. Keep an eye out here and I'll post pictures
when I get them on Shutterfly.
Second, I got my MCAT scores back a few days ago. And, most
importantly, I don't have to take them again! Actually, I did
well enough to make my GPA not look like a complete sham. The
separation between my scores probably puts me in sort of an "idiot
savant" category; I was in the 66th-83rd percentile on reading, but
above the 90th percentile in biology and physics. Weirder is that
I was in the 90th percentile on the writing sample, which proves that
you don't need to know how to read to know how to bullshit.
Third, I'm staying in Corvallis this summer. Apparently you can
be a student worker until the end of the summer after you graduate, so
I'll be teaching chemistry and finishing stuff in the lab until Labor
Day. After that, who knows... wonder if Quizno's is hiring?
For now, I'm going to go clean up the room that has remained an
absolute disaster since I began writing my thesis. Later-
Brett
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| I decided to erase all my old Xanga entries, mostly because they're all
out of contenxt now since it's been about nine months since I wrote
anything of any value on here. But, since I have a bit of time
now, and am likely to have a lot more in a few months, I figured I'd
get it back up and going again.
Most important news: less than two months until graduation. This brings up two pretty good questions:
1) will I finish in time with my sanity?
2) what will I do after I finish?
To answer number 1, I'd have to say "maybe" at this point. To answer number 2, it'd be more of a "who knows?".
When I got back from Hawaii, I was pretty well aware that there were
four pressing issues that I had to take care of before I ended this
quarter. The first of those (taking the MCAT) was taken care of
last weekend, although not in particularly graceful fashion. I
was scoring pretty well on pratice tests, the the real thing had some
curveballs on the section that I had done best at on practice
tests. In general, getting about a 30 is good enough to at least
get you a consideration (the test is scaled out of 45; see http://www.aamc.org/students/mcat/ if you care). Based on
how I feel after the test, here is my response guideline:
>30: take again
30-32: probably not take again, but certainly not very good
33-34: would be pretty happy
35-36: would wee myself in happiness
37-40: would wee and poo poo myself in happiness
(I stop the scale at 40 because that's as high as I could ever get on a
practice test. Anything high than this is just asinine.)
The other three things aren't going to be as quick as the MCAT, but
they'll probably be less stressful. First, there's writing my
thesis. To be fair, I've talked about the project enough times to
where it shouldn't be a huge issue to get it down on paper.
Defending it apparently doesn't require much, and writing it shouldn't
be too bad. Might be a nice change of pace after the MCAT
actually. Then there's finishing classes - I basically don't
deserve a degree if I can't finish the classes I'm taking this
quarter. Then, finally, there's applying for med school, which I
can probably drag out a little bit into the summer without inducing too
much of a fit from my advisors.
In addressing the second question, I still have no idea. It'll be
hard to convince anyone to hire me for a year (assuming I can get into
med school). Update on that as is necessary.
Anyway, I gotta go do some worthless communications homework. Peace-
Brett
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