Drew Reunion

 

 My 5-year college reunion was the last weekend in May and it was surreal. I can't believe five years has gone by so quickly! Sometimes it is still a little hard for me to believe that I am getting older-- only a few more years from the big 3-0. I definitely do not see my current self as the young, naive girl I was in college. I have grown so much in these last 5 years, I would not change anything for the world. However, as I visited campus with my friends, and I reflected on my time at Drew University, I wish I knew then what I know now. That old saying "Hindsight is 20/20" is so true in this regard.

My dear friends rented a beautiful house for the weekend, but I only stopped in and spent Saturday with them. We headed to campus and gave ourselves a tour of the updated buildings. Drew is a small, private-university, so just about everything was small and quaint and just right for the number of students attending the college. (My friends and I joked about how our school was so small, we felt as though we knew everyone just because we saw them every day. But, when it came time to recall names, we failed miserably. Not to mention, we had our own names for people like "Burster" - for the girl who sporadically sprinted across the paths or down the hallways at the drop of a hat.) Many of the updates were so impressive, we hardly recognized the building from the inside. Our Student Center and Hall of Sciences were some of the major ones. My favorite part of our self-tour was walking down the hallways of the science building, reminiscing about which room we had cancer biology in, who our favorite professors were, and discovering many photos from our year on the walls, and in their own album!

Not many people from our year were at the reunion activities on campus, but the majority of us in my circle of friends made the effort to be there. I really enjoyed spending time with them. It was as though we had never lost contact, grown a little older or led separate lives away from living within several feet of each other, dance marathons, and fourth meals from Cluck-U. I love friendships like that. We ended the evening with dinner, playing a couple rounds of UNO and several really intense games of Jenga. I never knew I was so good at Jenga until then.

 

Annual Traditions

The one tradition I've looked forward to for the past 4 years of my life is the 'Pre-Thanksgiving Feast' my friends from undergrad and I had the weekend before Thanksgiving. We usually had a full spread for dinner, and all contributed to the meal in some fashion. I always made the mashed potatoes. We also had baked mac and cheese, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, and our makeshift turkey were a few containers of store-bought rotisserie chicken. (It was the best we could do in a college dorm).

This tradition of sorts began in 2007 when our friendship first began germinating. We thought, 'wouldn't it be cool to have Thanksgiving dinner together since we will all be away with our families on the actual day?'. We went grocery shopping the day before the event and somehow everything always came together very nicely. After such a massive dinner, we danced. That food had to be dissolved somehow...

Even though we graduated last year May, our friends still continued the tradition since everyone still pretty much lived in the New Jersey/New York area. I was unable to make it to last year's festivities, but I will definitely be going today. I haven't seen my fellow Drewids since Alumni weekend last year! We're meeting at my friend's apartment in NYC. I am super excited! ツ

Here are a few pics from the previous years:

 2007 

 2008

 2009

Plans for the Summer!

That's me! ... and my neurobio professor in lab last year (2010). (Source)

I am pretty darn excited for this summer!

{No! Not for the disgustingly humid city weather...}

I am excited because I have been on my grind lately, trying to find a research or laboratory internship and it's all coming together!

My interest in a career in the research and development field (R&D) sparked at the latter end of my sophomore year in college. I realized that med school was not what I wanted after all. I liked working in the lab more than anything and I actually looked forward to going to lab every week. Whether it was dissecting rabbit muscles, trying to develop a vaccine against Staph aureus, or harvesting neurons from fetal rats, I loved every bit of it.

Now, for this summer, I have chosen to directly contact a few researchers to petition a summer internship in their lab. Preferably, I would like to have a paid internship. However, I desire to gain experience more than anything, so I have also petitioned for volunteer positions (with hopes of finding a little part-time gig to save up for my second year of grad school). I strongly believe that any position will help me to refine the skills I've gained during my undergraduate career and teach me new ones. With Philly as my 'permanent home', I have a wide variety of research organizations (i.e. GSK, FCCC, Wistar Institute, etc.) and universities (i.e. Drexel, Temple, UPenn, PCOM etc) in range that I can work with.

I have my first interview next week! ツ

Photo sharing: Drew U surely brought out the science lover in me! Enjoy these pics...

Ferns grown from tiny spores (freshman year).

Dissecting bunnies (sophomore year).

DNA fragmented by agarose gel electrophoresis (junior year).

DAPI-stained DNA microtubules during interphase (junior year).

Anatomy & Physiology lab (junior year).

The effects of glutamate cytotoxicity on neurons (senior year).

Trip to the Bronx Zoo (sophomore year).

**All photos are my own**

Found!

-- A girl in my fundamentals of oncology class was wearing a DREW University hoodie today (as was I). Strangely enough, we didn't notice it until after the 3 hour class lecture. It was like a breath of fresh air to find someone I had something in common with after a week or so. We talked about going back for alumni weekend and things like that until we parted in the parking lot.

Commencement

Last week, around this time, I was sitting in the Hot Hot Heat at my commencement ceremony for undergrad. I am proud of myself. It has been a rough 4 years. I have faced many ups and downs. I came to the realization that college courses require much more effort than high school courses. I've discovered my strengths and weaknesses. I have also gained many friendships, a few mentors, a new outlook on my dreams in life, and a new love. It's been a hard 4 years, but with the grace of God, I made it through.
Congratulations to the Drew University Class of 2010!