It's Always Something

Ok, semester the first: finished! When it came right down to it, I didn't want it to be done. It went too quickly! I had just gotten into the routine of classes and homework and was just becoming secure in my new friendships... and now it's summer, with a new routine and many of my friends elsewhere until next semester. Go figure.

I do think that my first CU semester went rather well. ANSCI 160: Animal Agriculture and Society built on my 4-H farm-girl background and was amazingly in-depth for a survey course. Then again, it was the first semester for the course, and there were five professors teaching it, and it was really hard to know what to study for the quizzes because each lecture was so in-depth... I guess it's a good thing I'm pretty good at dealing with chaos! Genetics started out in familiar territory (Punnet Squares, anyone?) and quickly zoomed off into a strange universe of math with letters and too many variables represented by "r"... but oddly enough, by the time I was done studying for the last test, it actually made some sort of sense. Thank goodness for crib sheets... otherwise I never would have remembered all those formulas! The AgSci Seminar would have been even better if I'd had time to hang around and talk to people afterward, but I really enjoyed the exposure we got to a wide variety of ag issues... everything from small farms to federal policy. The talks that stick out in my head are the CAFO planner, the organic sheep dairy farmers, the lobbyist, the weed specialist, and the food safety professor. Speaking of food, FDSCI 150: Food Choices and Issues initially sounded like a recap of the nutrition course I took last semester, but turned out to be so much more. I know more than I ever did - maybe more than I wanted to - about packaging and preservation methods. I could stand to know a bit more about the Green Revolution and genetically engineered food, but there will be other courses... assuming I have time. COMM 285: Communication in the Life Sciences was absolutely fascinating. I'm not sure I can even adequately summarize that class yet, but I'll give it a go. I suppose the take-home message was that communication is essential to science, science communication happens in many different ways, and evaluating science communication requires a certain level of scientific literacy. I already feel that this course will be majorly influential for me, but exactly how remains to be seen. Last but by no means least, NTRES 322: Global Ecology and Management taught me oh so much about climate change, methods for finding out about past climate change, gave me mental tools for considering the impacts of future changes... and I'm keeping the book. The prof (who is insane and brilliant) warned us that it was dry and boring, but whenever I was reading it, I very often had to set it down for a minute to exclaim over something novel or interesting. For once I didn't care about the style at all - the information was too intriguing!

I was also involved with EARS training this semester. EARS stands for Empathy, Assistance, and Referral Services, and it's a peer-run counseling center on campus. I took the first semester of counselor training and definitely enjoyed it. It's a way of listening and helping people that, admittedly, doesn't come naturally to me. I'm used to "fixing" problems and dispensing advice, not guiding people to find their own solutions... but I've gained a deep appreciation for the latter approach and will try to practice it more often. Hopefully it will help that I now wish that all my friends knew it so they could use it on me...

I maintained a pretty good balance between school and play this semester, but I definitely have to work on making exercise a priority. That was probably my major failing this semester, and it definitely showed. I got sick a couple times (in contrast, I only got sick three times in the year that I worked in the ER, and two of those times were in the first month) and nearly passed out from dehydration once when I actually did go running. Oops. Anybody interested in being my workout buddy next semester?

This summer I'm looking forward to an online class (TC3's ECON 120: Principles of Micro - it's a prerequisite for a fall class), my internship, and waiting tables at Moosewood. Next semester I'll have 19 credits - more than I've ever taken. Stay tuned...