The results are in...

Got into Washington University Friday. Happy.

The Waiting Game

Why do people call it that? Usually games are fun, but I've realized that this so-called "waiting game" really isn't. It's something like torture, actually. I guess there's just a lot at stake...

J-term is going all right. I'm going to have 200 hours of research in Jeff's (www.gac.edu/~dahlseid) lab at the end of the month. And I'm actually starting to get somewhere... which means that I might be able to present my work in Princeton, NJ, this summer at the annual Yeast Genetics conference. If so, I'll be able to see Scott Moye-Rowley and the gang from Iowa City. That would be sweet... I haven't seen them since the summer before last. The company that made our gene sequencer provides money to undergrads who use their equipment to present their work at conferences like this one, so I should be able to go... otherwise it'd be insanely expensive (from what I saw, more than $500).

Also, I'm applying for a patient advocacy position next year (just in case!) with FamiliesUSA, a non-profit lobbying group in D.C. More on that later, I guess.

So I have a lot of academic/professional stuff going on right now, more or less. I'm pretty much just sitting here waiting to hear from med schools. At least I know that by March I should be done waiting... whether that's good or bad remains to be seen!

A Poem for the Day

We Wear the Mask

We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes—
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.
Why should the world be over-wise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
          We wear the mask.

We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
But let the world dream otherwise,
          We wear the mask!

-Paul Laurence Dunbar