The first time I read F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby,” I hated it. Now you should know that I rarely use the word “hate” because it’s such a strong word. However, I really, really disliked the book. I guess I wasn’t prepared for a book exposing all of the 1920s immorality. However, as this book was on my required summer reading list, and since I’d have to take a test on it for my high school college credit English course in the coming fall semester, I read it for a second time. And the second time I read it was the time I fell in love with “Gatsby.” Everything just came alive to me. The lavishness of Gatsby’s parties, the Jazz Age music and dance, the heat of the air conditioning-less summer in New York, the intensity among Nick, Jordan, Gatsby, and Tom as they sat in a parlor in the city, the ever-omniscient eyes of Dr. TJ Eckleburg – I immediately understood why this book is considered an American classic. Now, my copy of “Gatsby” sits in a prominent place on my bookshelf among my other favorite books such as “Jane Eyre” and “Como Agua Para Chocolate,” aka “Like Water for Chocolate.” (But, in case you’re wondering, I have the Spanish version of that book because it’s a Mexican folklore/romantic tale and because I was super into learning Spanish when I first read it.)

About a year ago, I heard that this book was going to be made into a movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Gatsby. I impatiently waited to see it. And last night, I saw the movie for the second time. I went with my friend, and we had an absolute blast. Everyone in the theater with us was very into the movie, and, at various points throughout the movie, you could hear the entire audience gasp, sniffle, cry, and laugh.

If you haven’t yet seen the movie, I definitely recommend it. And if you’ve never read the book, I recommend that you read it at least twice. It’s totally worth it.

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into
the past.”

It all started this past December before exams. Fellow blogger Carly and I were discussing the ever-important question, “If you were an animal, which animal would you be?” (I should mention here that, yes, we both understood that we, as humans, are animals in the evolutionary sense; hence, we were referring to wild animals during our lengthy discussion.) Anyways, a day or two later, Carly emailed me an official online quiz from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) telling you what your inner animal is.

After submitting your email, the quiz gives you a few short questions about your lifestyle and physical characteristics. Then, it quickly calculates your animal. I was super excited to find out that I’m a tiger.

So by now, you’re probably wondering how legit this quiz is. Well, if you answer honestly, I think it’s pretty realistic. Here is the description that accompanied my animal:

“You are quite a striking and rare individual. You appear to be warm and cuddly but the soft exterior hides an iron will. You prefer a rather solitary lifestyle. You are comfortable in a wide variety of environments and definitely prefer the quiet of nighttime.”

Scary, right?! I mean, that description pretty much describes me in a nutshell.

And then randomly this past Tuesday while at my internship, we started talking about Columbia, Missouri, and inevitably about the Mizzou Tigers. I proudly exclaimed, “I’m a tiger!” and quickly began explaining what I meant by that. By the end of lunch, almost everyone in the lab had discovered their animal selves. You can see our own little “zoo” in the photo below.

…And I would be very mean if I were to end my blog without giving you the link to this awesome website, so here it is. But be warned- it is VERY addictive.

http://worldwildlife.org/pages/find-your-inner-animal

“I’ve heard it said that people come into our lives for a reason, bringing something we must learn. And we are led to those who help us most to grow, if we let them…”

The above lyrics are from the final song in my all-time favorite musical, “Wicked.”  I’ve been thinking about these lyrics in depth for quite some time now since many of my friends have graduated and are moving on to new chapters in their lives.  But even so, I’d like to devote this blog and these lyrics to a newer friend, one whom I’ve only known since spring break.  I’m talking about my good friend David, who is another intern in the microbiology lab where I’ll be spending my summer.  David is from Colombia, South America, and in the short time that I’ve known him, he’s taught me some invaluable life lessons.

1. “You Can Do It!”  Whenever I screw up in the lab or speak negatively about my chances of getting into a graduate program related to immunology or microbiology, David always reminds me that I can do it.  We put restrictions on ourselves.  Yes, I may not get in to the program of my dreams, and yes, I may – and most likely will – stumble along the way, but with a positive attitude, practically anything that you truly put your mind and heart into will happen.

2. Invest in your education.  I’ll admit it - sometimes I feel completely burnt out on school.  I absolutely love learning, but when I realize that I’ve been in school since I’ve been six years old, it begins to feel redundant.  But as David reminded me, the only thing that can truly never be taken away from you is your education.  This reminder will become ever more beneficial as I continue my education during my final year at Fontbonne and beyond.

3. Be patient!  Life is a process.  Things take time.  Whether it be the process of micropipetting a particularly viscous soap sample or the process of becoming your true self, always remember to be patient. 

4. We are young.  Sometimes I literally freak out.  (Okay, that’s incorrect – I freak out more frequently than “sometimes.”)  But that’s okay.  Even though the future is super important, I don’t have to have everything figured out all at once.  Going back to #3, life truly is a process, and, though I’d like to know what lies ahead, there’s no way that will ever truly happen.  Therefore, it’s more beneficial to worry about doing my best in school, in work, and in my personal life now because doing so will help me to prepare for what lies ahead.

5. “La vida está llena de cosas interesantes.”  (“Life is full of interesting things.”)  No words could be more honest.  Sometimes we forget how awesome life is.  We get so dragged down by worry and responsibility and day-to-day madness that we forget how truly blessed we are to even be alive.  We need to take time to partake in the famous cliche of stopping to smell the roses.

I’ve learned so much from my new friend, and I’m sad that he’ll be leaving all too soon.  I’d like to think that he learned new things from me; at the very least, I know that he now has a better understanding of American terms such as “cougar” and “freaking out,” and he is much better at pronouncing similar-sounding words such as “both,” “boat,” and “bought.”  So here’s to our last few days working and laughing together in the lab, and to the many future endeavors that we will share with each other via email and other virtual communications that make our world a much smaller place.

“And now whatever way our stories end, know you have rewritten mine, by being my friend…”

Finally finals are over and it is time to relax and enjoy the weather. My first year at Fontbonne was amazing. I had a great time; I made a lot of new friends and did really well in school. Now I am looking forward to hanging out with my high school friends and going to Colorado to see my boyfriend and his family. Which is in 11 days, but who is counting? I will be there for two weeks! That is definitely the highlight of my summer. My best friend had her baby boy on May 7th, so I was able to see him yesterday. His name is Ben and is so cute. So far this summer I have been hanging out with some good friends and watching hockey; sorry Saint Louis — I love my Blackhawks. To me, it feels really weird to be back home in the Chicagoland area. I am actually anxious to come back to school because I am so close to graduation. I only have a year and a half left. I am going to go out with a bang!

It’s official.  I’ve finished my third year in college. 

I’ve been spending a lot of time lately thinking about my experiences thus far, perhaps because most of my friends will be graduating in just two days from now.  I came to Fontbonne leery of the thought of taking on a major as challenging as biology, and, I’ll admit it, I’ve really considered changing majors many times ever since (although oddly, I’ve never quite made it over to the registrar to pick up the correct form for that- call me lazy).  Just three years ago, I was staring wide-eyed at my first general biology I assignment, which was on mimicry in the snake world.  I didn’t understand the words.  I was put into a group with seniors who, for some strange reasons, needed to retake general biology and who had already taken crazy 300- and 400-level biology courses.  I had no idea what I was doing in that class.

And look at me now.  I’ve finished my chemistry minor.  I’m practically finished with my biotechnology concentration, and I already finished the physiology concentration.  I’ve even taken an additional independent study human anatomy class (neuroanatomy) for fun.  I technically only need to take one more biology class, immunology, and then I will have finished all of the departmental requirements for my degree.

So what have I learned in three years?  Mostly, I’ve learned to never quit, even though I say “I quit” on what’s practically a daily basis.  I’m scared about what lies ahead as far as GREs and internships and jobs and graduate admissions go, but I think that’s what’s the most exciting thing of all. 

But, with school having just ended, I’d like to take some time to just reflect on the memories.  The memories of Wednesday Cinema, our rather-new tradition of sitting in the biology seminar room and watching movies while doing homework all day.  The memories of taking Molecular Techniques with Dillon and Tim all semester and telling each other to not tell Dr. Paine-Saunders that we spilled buffer all over or that we dropped our Western blot membranes in the sink.  The memories of sleepless nights before organic chem tests and of waking up at 2 in the morning before a biochem test only to lie in bed and go through equations and problems over and over again in my head until it was time to get up and ready to go at 5:30am.  These and countless other memories will continue to haunt me as I realize that many of my friends will not be back on campus in class with me next fall.  But those memories, those bittersweet memories, will in time turn out to be some of the best I’ve ever had.

~ With Two of the Best Friends I’ll Ever Have ~

Good afternoon!

I hope everyone had a nice, relaxing weekend. One of my favorite things to do is spending time with family. During my childhood, my uncle was always taking all of us out for fun. What I mean by “us” is our group which includes me, my twin sister Mary, our brother Anthony, and our cousins, Lena, Amy, and Long. It was always the six of us with our dear uncle, Loi. Things changed dramatically for us in the past 5 or more years. Last night was one event that brought us all together again.

Now, we all live in St. Louis, but Long and his family moved to Illinois a few years ago. Every now and then, he would drive back to visit us. I guess you could say we all became a little distant, but when chances come we hang out like we used to.

Back to the point! Yesterday, Mary and I went to work and didn’t plan on doing anything special afterward. Long called me and asked if we were still barbecuing (I was really happy to hear from him because it’s been a long time). I asked surprisingly, “We’re doing it today?!” Long said, “Yeah, that’s what Uncle was telling me.” Man, I was pretty excited! I told Mary as well, so we were anxious to finish with work as soon as we could. Unfortunately, we were a little busy so instead of getting off right at 4:30pm, we had to stay until about 6:00pm because we still had customers. Then we headed home to pick up our baby brother, Avin, to come with us (he’s our half-brother from mom and her boyfriend). Mom was cooking some things for us to bring over so we waited until she was done.

We finally arrived to Uncle’s house before 7:00pm! Long waited as patiently as he could. Ha ha. He also brought his girlfriend, Briana, her daughter Journey, and his friend Sebastian. Yes, Briana is only 17 and Journey is about 4 months old, but they’re both really sweet. Also, Uncle’s girlfriend’s sisters were there: Selena, Tracey, and their cousin, Nga. Nice group, eh? And of course, Uncle was busy barbecuing. It was awesome.

After all was done, we sat in the living room and ate. Uncle made three different types of barbecue, spaghetti, and bought a container of mustard potato salad. It was so delicious! Even before then, we all ate my mom’s homemade Vietnamese “crepes”. I honestly don’t know what we would name it in English, but that’s that.

As most of us were done eating except Uncle, my boyfriend Michael also came. After Uncle was done eating, we went downstairs for karaoke! And talk about great singing but also hilarious moments. We sang all night until about midnight! Then we all took some food home because Uncle said he can’t finish it all.

I know that was a looooong blog, but just wanted to express my family memories. Hopefully we’re going to do something again today!

Have an awesome day, everyone.

This week was the best week I had all year. My birthday was on Thursday and all I wanted was to have dinner with my family. Not only did they travel down to St. Louis but all my friends joined as well. Thursday night was the most fun I have had in a long time. So thank you to all those who came out to celebrate with me and my friend NickiJ, whose birthday was also on Thursday. I cant believe it has come and gone already. The biggest surprise I had was two of my team mates got a poster and had people around campus sign their names and write some birthday wishes on it. It was nice to see what people wrote. Best gift of the night.

Good afternoon!

I figured I should post a blog since I’ve been slacking off..I apologize for that!

I hope everyone had a good weekend. If you ask me, I think it was in-between. First, everyone know Friday, April 12, was Fontbonne Service Day, right? Of course you do. And my accomplishment for that day was being the team captain for my group! That was a huge step for me.

My group went to the Shalom House for our service site. Shalom House is a shelter for homeless women who needs help to rebuild their lives. It’s a really great place because the women receive services and support for as long as they need until they’re able to live on their own, and they don’t have to pay anything until then. Classes are also provided for them, such as communications and skills. Rebecca Tucker was our volunteer coordinator and we communicated really well.

Our duties were to prepare and cook for our women. Our menu included spaghetti, garlic bread, corn, fruit salad, lemonade, brownies and hummingbird muffins for dessert. Yummm. The women really enjoyed it! Our group did an amazing job together. Our next assignment was helping Janette with sorting out things in their sanctuary area. There were so many new/old things in there! From what I remember, there were clothes, shoes, bags/purses, etc. Even boxes of Oreo cookies! Anthony Hall and Erica Garcia were definitely busy taking those away. They did great!

It was definitely a great service day. Rebecca really, really, really appreciated us, and I was so happy to hear that. I may come back next year!

Friday was also one of my cousins’ birthday. She’s 16 now! Man, the years really flew by. It was a pretty fun night with family, karaoke, Vietnamese pancakes (banh xeo) and a random game! I guess we could call it Name that Name in ABC order. Something like that.

Saturday was just work day. The usual. Then Sunday, I also went to work but afterwards, my sister and I went to Fontbonne to pick up friends to go for some Ted Drewes! Our fellow friends were Sem, Carlos, Erica, and Ahmed. If I was able to pick them up earlier, Izzy could’ve made it too. There’s always next time!

So yeah, that’s all I wanted to say about my recent weekend. Be safe, and take care!

I could get used to beautiful sunny weather.

As unpredictable as Midwest weather can be, I appreciate those beautiful sunny days that bring people out of the darkness to the bright outdoors.

As far as recent events go, this weekend has been delightful due to the great weather and fun outdoor events that I have been able to be a part of.

One recent event was a tailgate that we had on campus in order to pump Students up for the Men’s Lacrosse game (which we won by the way).

The tailgate featured personalized pennants that people could get.

Pennant-makers hard at work.

Fontbonne Staff Members Lisa Clanton and Janelle Densberger representing Griffin Nation.

It was fun watching the pennant-making process.

Fontbonne Students enjoying the weather and waiting for pennants.

Another recent event was the GO! St Louis Marathon. My Fontbonne Friends Marcy and Isabella, and I went last year.

Here's a picture of us cheering on runners at the event last year.

Even though I’m not a morning person, the GO! St. Louis marathon has been an event that has been worth waking up for. We post up on the Delmar Loop usually, which is around mile 20, near the end of the marathon. It’s fun interacting with the runners and rooting them on as they get closer to the finish line.

Here is Marcy, Me, and Isabella in our cheer gear this year! We're wearing black, red, and green to support our friend who dedicated his marathon partially to the people of Kenya. (Michael and I went to Kenya this past Summer with Fontbonne.)

We went to Fozzie's Sandwich Emporium near school to get some delicious food and shakes after the race.

Lovin' everyone taking advantage of the beautiful weather and the hammocks on campus in Medaille Meadow.

It’s just a shame that schoolwork has to put a damper on things, and my time enjoying the outdoor activities has to be limited. Last home stretch though…less than 40 days until I’m on Summer break and graduated!!!

Peace, Love, & Spirit!

I got asked out on a date. A real, take-me-out-to-dinner, tell-me-about-your-childhood, date.

My reply? “I’m free in two weeks for about five hours.”

I haven’t talked to him since.

Before now, when I would become overwhelmed with emotion, I would work myself to a point of exhaustion: pick up extra shifts at work, run for President of a club, volunteer. Men don’t have a place here because they only bring MORE emotion. Basically, I would do anything to lessen the number of minutes I had time to think to myself.

This coping mechanism is how I survived high school. I scribbled through the pages of a carefully, color-coordinated calendar. If my days were full, they’d pass more quickly, right? I was over eager for what the next chapter in my life had to offer, because I KNEW it had to offer more.

Problem: I was always counting down the days to the ‘next’ step.

As this year has morphed from a sad fall, to a depressing winter, to a confused spring it’s known that I’ve had a plethora of heartbreaking, unhappy days.

After a solid two weeks of calling my dad sobbing, I knew I had to change something.

Should I move to Arkansas? Being around my family would alleviate most of my sadness. Should I take a semester off? I’ve always wanted to go to cosmetology school. Should I transfer to Mizzou? That’s where I had always planned to go before I decided to move to St. Louis.

In my city apartment, I thought about all the directions my life could go. At school, I tried to picture myself striding through the halls of another University. At work, I’d wonder if I could find a job that paid similarly in another area of the Midwest.

Problem: Thoughts of what I COULD be doing were depriving me of experiencing what I actually was doing.

The change I needed was to START living. I live in St. Louis in a fabulous apartment- it is tiny, but the appliances are new and the walls are decorated with pictures and hangings I carefully chose. I’m earning an amazing education—I’m in a honors program and when I walk through the halls, professors know my name (They also know where I live, what my major is, and how much my family means to me). I also have a job that is meaningful AND allows me to eat off of a silver platter. The only negative light in this mix is me not enjoying all that my environment has to give me.

So, for the first time in my entire life (literally), I’m not counting down the days for the ‘next’ step. My planner is still overflowing with commitments, but I didn’t commit to these events because I’m running from my thoughts. I’m embracing where I am, and it’s turning out to be quite fun (even though I’m passing on free dinners).