Content at Home

So I decided this afternoon what I really needed was a weekend with my mama, and since I can't decide to do that on a whim but a little while longer, I headed on home.

We went to the fair in Faith with the little people. They had a BLAST. Little kids are so amazing. This is my Meranda (the redheaded girl), my Shelby (the blonde girl), and my nephew Hunter.



When Hunter said, "Kristy!" as soon as he saw me get out of the car, it made the whole drive home worth it.

BBQ, Cheerwine, and fun with family. These are the glorious things New Haven will lack...though I'm sure it will be filled with amazing things that I can't find here.

Clearing on out

Engineering a Recombinase-Inducible T-Lymphocyte Line
8/20/2004-6/30/2006
May someone else finish you.

So, my project is dead. Yeah, the one with the glowing red (RFP). My construct works but the transfection is having issues and I won't be around long enough to see it through.

I threw out all the RNA and DNA made from all the cell lines we know are duds this AM. It was much harder than I thought it would be.

So I'm doing a different project for the next few weeks, and that's pretty exciting, but it's still sort of hard. At least:

1. It's not my grad school project.
2. My hope is not here.

Jesus doesn't keep a scorecard of science projects. Hallelujah.

Sometimes these things just pop up...

So among my favorite verses - ever - is this:

I will gladly spend and be expended for your souls. If I love you the more, am I to be loved the less?

- 2 Corinthians 12:15 (NASB)

No particular reason why today, but it's just on my heart. There's never a Biblical reason to hold some of ourselves back for ourselves, rather, pour it on out there. Eternally, we will never be loved the less.

Worth trying again...

So posting about all my interviews didn't work out so great.

Turns out in the end, got into Yale, Penn, Baylor, and Duke, and decided to (well, God told me to) go to Yale.

But I really do need to get better at this so I can share my life in New Haven with my beloved Grace and Wolfpack family in Raleigh. Cause ya'll rock my world.

The transition is starting to be very real...I'm realizing I'm...

an adult.

Yes, an adult. As in, I bought a bed and was excited that Hecht's had sheets on sale. It's no longer odd that my friends are getting married and having kids. And the scariest part of this realization is

We are largely already who we are going to be.

I'm NOT saying that people don't change. After all, "And I am sure that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on that day when Christ Jesus comes back again (Phillipians 1:6, NLT)." And Paul knows his stuff. It's just that since I was a little girl I had these ideas about what I'd do and who I'd be and the time for those things is upon us. I always thought I'd enjoy going to see plays when I grew up. Why not start this weekend finding something to go to? I always thought I'd read a lot and be very thoughtful. Hum...what was the last thing I read for the sake of reading?

One Down (A Weekend in Philly)

My first interview weekend is now officially over. Man, this is an exhausting process. Penn was great - it's somewhere I can really see myself feeling at home. The environment is very friendly and cooperative, without mean-spirited competitiveness. The administration and faculty seem very supportive of the students. Philly is a fabulous town - not too huge of a city to be unmanageable but still clearly has a lot to do.

Next up: Baylor.

Philly!

I'm packing for my visit to Penn, and now I'm starting to get a little nervous. I feel like, on some small level, tomorrow I have to admit that I'm getting to be a grownup. I'm just terrified of looking like an idiot, seeming like I don't belong...aaagh!

Something new

So, I'm going to spending more days than not out of town for a while, and to sort of consolidate and record this experience of interviewing and selecting a grad school (then moving my whole life God-knows-where), I've decided to do the completely rational thing and blog it. Maybe the air in Michigan got to me. Who knows?

It's been a week since I first started getting interview offers and such. And what a week it's been.

Last Thursday, I got my first interview offers around noon. Actually, one had come via email at five the previous afternoon (Penn) but I hadn't checked my email until noon. I was shocked and estatic and accepted. Then I notice I have another in my inbox. That one was from Baylor. Again, shock, estatic, accept. Then one from Cornell arrives. Gosh. Exciting! Finally, around 2 PM, I get an offer from Duke. Woohoo!

At this point, I realize:
Maybe applying to nine schools was a wee bit of overkill.

At about 4, one of the professors on Duke's admissions committee calls to tell me about the interview (if I hadn't already checked my email) and let me know they were impressed by the honesty in my personal statement (I actually told them I once thought biology was a dead and boring subject), I think she got the impression I didn't care very much, but I was in such a state of shock it was hard to sound excited...I talked to her for a couple minutes and I think she figured out how in shock I was...and she didn't even know the whole of my day!

The next day, driving to the Detroit airport (which is a long and glorious story in and of itself), we were running late. It was 5:02, my flight leaves at 6, and we're still on the Interstate. Oh dear. Emotions and endorphins are already running high. My phone rings, and I answer it. The lady on the other end indentifies herself as a professor at Yale on the admissions committee. She says they were very impressed with my application and are calling to offer me...

admission.

I was really honestly expecting her to say interview, so when I heard admission, I was quiet for a moment then said, "Excuse me, could you say that again?". She very nicely said admission then told me that they'd like to fly me up for a visit, but it wouldn't be an interview - I'm in and should get the letter in the mail very soon. I thanked her profusely, and have been floating ever since. Really.

Tuesday I recieved an interview offer from UNC, which I'm declining.

Wednesday I recieved an interview offer from UW-Seattle, which I am declining largely because they demanded an absolute yes or no in response to their email in less than 33 hours (in addition to calling me three places), and I don't like that style. If you have irrational time demands on people you're recruiting, what are you like to your actual students who are stuck there? Blegh.

Thursday I recieved a sort of "pre-interview offer notification" from WashU St. Louis.

On Thursday I also recieved my first rejection letter, from Rockefeller. They're the school that was my first choice back in December. I'm a little heartbroken, to be honest. I feel like a horrible, ungrateful person for being disappointed, but they were my clear first pick. So, I'm chalking it up to clearly, God does not want me at Rockefeller - cause if I had gotten in, that's probably where I would have gone. Now, I'm just ready to go visit everyone and see where I fit well (though if I could fit best at Yale, that really woud be something).