Apex of our year

So much has happened since my last blog I don't even feel like doing this.

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Yeah I wish. Last Friday was the main event for the year, the big shebang. Our research symposium was a huge success. There was a few keynote speakers to lead off the event, people had to give their dissertations. You could tell that they were good by the fact that I saw no one sleeping. I mean, it was 9:30 and it was a room full of college students. After that came the best part of the day....I mean lunch. This was when we got to socialize with even more SEED students, these ones hailing from WVU. It was good to talk to them and learn about their projects. I was so happy that it pretty much negated my anger from my ice cream prematurely melting. Almost.....I was really looking forward to that.

Anyways, after lunch came the poster session. It was pretty amazing to see the varying kind of research that had been done. It went from analyzing characters in Russian fairytales to molecular dynamic simulations of the norepinephrine and serotonin transporters in a lipid bilayer membrane. Can you guess which one I understood?

Once it was my turn to present my poster my nerves were at an all time high. With my luck I'd get Stephen Hawking asking me to explain my poster. However, once my first visitors came, I found that I was readily prepared and even managed to slip in a smooth wink.

After the session was over, I realized that this might be the last time I get to see my group, so we didn't pass up the oppurtunity for some amazing photo ops.



After the dust settled from the symposium, we had the Project SEED alumni lunch. I was very anxious to meet some of my predesscesors. I thought they were going to be very stuck up and judgemental. I also thought the Steelers were going to win the Superbowl. Turns out I was wrong on both counts! Everyone was extremely friendly, and very eager to share their experiences and wisdom with us. There were even a few fellow Sto-Rox students who were in college. It is nice to be reminded evry now and then that you shouldn't let where you come from hinder you. Tim McFadden is just starting his PH.D program, and Chris Siden is in his third year of Duquesne's pharmacy program. If they could go on to do great things like that, who's to say I can't?

So that's about it, the last few days in a nutshell. SEED is almost over now and it is weird to think that I'll actually be able to sleep in soon. That is until school starts, at least.