And so, my saga of thoughts from the past several weeks continue in this thrilling new post... well, maybe not so thrilling, but they do continue nonetheless.
I was taking a walk around campus and Rogers Park today and decided it would be a great idea to contemplate exactly what I'm doing with all this bioethics and gene therapy research I'm getting myself into. Of course, when I started the goal was to write a little paper for my Health Care Ethics class final, which I did. But apparently, my little work impressed the professor to the extent that she suggested that I submit it to a national bioethics undergraduate symposium thing (she also gave me 100 on the paper, which I am still thrilled about). And so, now I have dedicated a significant amount of my time to this research project, and I'm starting to wonder exactly what I'm going to do with it, or if I even have the time or motivation right now to do anything with it. On the other hand, I think that since I've already put so much time into it, and since I need every edge I can get over the competition in my school and field, I should just keep truckin' away and try to make something out of this piece.
But, herein lies the problem. I am a sophomore in college at a prestigious, but not all that prestigious, university, and I feel like no one really cares what I have to say, even if I do get it published. This is very discouraging to me and really makes me want to give up and not pursue this little project any further. This is simply a very confusing and trying subject for me, and I'll have to give this additional thought before I sort it all out. I'm finding that this doesn't have a nice, easy answer like many of the problems that I encounter and choose to share on this blog. I'll have to get back to this topic at a later time.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
So Much to Write...
It's been a while since I've been on, and I have so many exciting stories to tell that I think I'm going to have to break up this post and publish several shorter posts over the next several days. I know I always get a sudden sinking feeling when I see massive numbers of words staring at me from my computer screen and instantly want to abandon whatever venture I am pursuing at that time. So, in order to prevent that feeling down the road if/when I come back and read all these posts, I'm going to publish little, shorter stories, a series of stories, if you will. So, chapter one...
On Tuesday, June 29th, I was riding back from vising some friends downtown when I was hit by a car. Now, this whole experience barely has any real substance to it because I didn't think very much of it at the time and I still don't. I wasn't hurt and the driver of the car of course wasn't hurt, so right off the bat I can't even put an element of drama into it because I feel silly playing up something that, compared to what could have happened, wasn't even a big deal. But, of course, there are lessons to be taken from every experience, although they may not be the lessons apparently obvious to the situation.
Lesson #1 (the obvious lesson): One must watch for cars even while biking on a bike path like the Lakefront Path (this is where I was hit). This lesson should be ridiculous, but apparently is not, because apparently, cars are everywhere. But that is a discussion for another time.
Lesson #2 (the not-so-obvious lesson): Remaining calm and diffusing high stress, high intensity situations, especially if you are the victim of such situations, is a genius plan for making taxing situations play out smoothly and briskly. When I was laying on the ground, after I had just been thrown off my bike, I did a little self assessment on my self using my basic EMT knowledge from class and, noting that I was at least A&O x3 and didn't feel any pain except an understandable headache, I knew nothing was completely life threatening right at that moment. So instead of freaking out, I spent the time talking to and making jokes with the people around me, in particular the driver of the car that hit me. He was really freaking out when he first ran over, but after a few minutes of talking to him and calming him down, the whole experience shifted from panic to almost placid.
In the end, it turned out to be a semi-positive experience. Except for the fact that my bike was destroyed. BUT, no one was hurt, and that's the important thing. My Zen says I should not become attached to physical materials, and my Grandpa has instilled in me (through my wrecking of the family car) that material possessions are easily fixed and should never be fretted over. Between the two of them, I feel as though I had a handle on the whole situation and gave it my best shot at having a positive outcome.
On Tuesday, June 29th, I was riding back from vising some friends downtown when I was hit by a car. Now, this whole experience barely has any real substance to it because I didn't think very much of it at the time and I still don't. I wasn't hurt and the driver of the car of course wasn't hurt, so right off the bat I can't even put an element of drama into it because I feel silly playing up something that, compared to what could have happened, wasn't even a big deal. But, of course, there are lessons to be taken from every experience, although they may not be the lessons apparently obvious to the situation.
Lesson #1 (the obvious lesson): One must watch for cars even while biking on a bike path like the Lakefront Path (this is where I was hit). This lesson should be ridiculous, but apparently is not, because apparently, cars are everywhere. But that is a discussion for another time.
Lesson #2 (the not-so-obvious lesson): Remaining calm and diffusing high stress, high intensity situations, especially if you are the victim of such situations, is a genius plan for making taxing situations play out smoothly and briskly. When I was laying on the ground, after I had just been thrown off my bike, I did a little self assessment on my self using my basic EMT knowledge from class and, noting that I was at least A&O x3 and didn't feel any pain except an understandable headache, I knew nothing was completely life threatening right at that moment. So instead of freaking out, I spent the time talking to and making jokes with the people around me, in particular the driver of the car that hit me. He was really freaking out when he first ran over, but after a few minutes of talking to him and calming him down, the whole experience shifted from panic to almost placid.
In the end, it turned out to be a semi-positive experience. Except for the fact that my bike was destroyed. BUT, no one was hurt, and that's the important thing. My Zen says I should not become attached to physical materials, and my Grandpa has instilled in me (through my wrecking of the family car) that material possessions are easily fixed and should never be fretted over. Between the two of them, I feel as though I had a handle on the whole situation and gave it my best shot at having a positive outcome.
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