Highs and Lows

This has definitely been a week of highs and lows.

Monday our group lost all of our lab data after we spent 2 hours on MathCad. We were lucky to be able to finish up with another group instead of starting again from scratch, but I still have a lot of work to put into it, which probably means that I won't get to the Nobel lectures this week.

The U of M sent me my supplemental application letter September 8th, and has been the only school to attach a deadline to their application. In this case, today-- September 25th. I didn't get the letter right away because it went to my house instead of my school address. So by the time I got it, I only had about 2 weeks to get it done. And, of course, because I didn't have anything better to do than a med school application during that time (like, say, homework?) I should have gotten it to them early, I suppose. But, it's still not done, and even though I emailed and called the admissions office to let them know this on Friday, no one answered. My friend Katie said she got an extension on hers, but that the guy said if she hadn't they would have destroyed her application on the 26th... i.e., tomorrow, morning. I'm really sick of the U, and it has dropped from 3rd-4th on my list of schools I'd like to go to to dead last. At the same time, the U is one of two or three schools I know I can get into, and if something should go wrong at the other two, it would be nice to have a school to fall back on. Oh well, I guess I'll see what happens.

Also, as I said before, one of my good friends Nick is being sent to Iraq as a field medic. That is, he will be on the very front lines. I saw him Friday at the chemistry club barbeque, and it was really obvious that he is -- as anyone would be -- annoyed and probably scared by it. He said that lately he's been making his classes every day and doing all of his homework, as well as continuing with his extra curricular activities. He says it makes him forget that he's leaving. -- The dilemma is that he's not 21, and at his going away party he's going to have alcohol; this means that if I go to it, I have a chance of losing my job with Residential Life because I know they'll be serving minors. But if I don't go, I might not see him again, because he won't be starting again until at least Fall 2006.

I'm having a really hard time with all that. I'm mad about the war. I can't believe the American military didn't have a better plan to get our soldiers out after Saddam fell.

And, I feel terrible griping about my own problems when a great guy like Nick is going into a situation like that.

On a positive note, our Chapel Apprentices meeting went really well. I was almost able to forget about all of this crap. We went to the UMN landscape gardens in Chaska and just walked the grounds, talked about the year, and did some skill inventories. It was really a great, relaxing day.

I had a practice med school interview with the health professions advisor on Thursday, as well. That was the first time I've felt on top of med school application process in a long time... since June. I hope to get the last of my secondaries done tonight, so that all I have to worry about is getting recommendation letters sent out.

I suppose life will go on.