To Begin a New

Auburn, California

As I write this I make my way back to Davis, my home away from home. As I look out the window in the car I watch as familiar sites pass me by, things I have watched change during the last 15 years every day of school. I look back on those days and reflect on nostalgic memories of high school and middle school, teachers of the past, and friends that have been lost to time. During this last break, I was again busy doing other things in preparations for the future, applying to internships and research opportunities, but I am glad I was still able to find some time to go back to at least one of these people for lunch. Sadly,  I fear that this won’t occur as much as I would like it to, there are so many people to catch up with, and time keeps getting eaten away at as I aim towards my future goals.

Why I’m in this mood I’m not entirely sure, perhaps it’s because of the events of this break, or more likely just a realization of all the time that has passed.  What makes it even more impactful is knowing that I may be gone all of Summer as well, unable to visit those of my past as I continue my life experiences doing some research internship away from home. Naturally I want to go through with an internship; it’s just unfortunate that I won’t be seeing many people, if any.

Chytrid fungus has caused the extinctions of numerous
anurans throughout the world. Current theory is that the
 fungushardens the skin making respiration more difficult.

Some other time I may write about the past when in another reminiscing mood, but as for now I’m excited to get back to my classes and anxious to hear back about the applications I have sent out. As many know the main one I look forward to is the possible opportunity in Yosemite working on a herpetology survey program. Over this break though I applied to many more; there is one on butterflies with a professor from Davis, a fly research project, and my second favorite one working with Jonah Piovia-Scott in the field dealing with the chytrid fungus that are endangering anurans (frogs and toads). In the beginning of the year I had talked to Jonah to help with his project, but he then led me to Christopher Searcy who is in charge of the Tiger Salamander research. So I look forward to helping Jonah this time around. These are about half of the research projects I applied to, but they are my top choices currently.

SO CUTE!!!

On to the classes I look forward to for this last quarter. Mostly biology based classes, so that makes this already the best quarter yet. Earlier today I also found out that I will have my introduction bio class with my orientation roommate Kent. This will be the first time I see him since orientation, and I look forward to talking to him again, I had a good time with him. It’s fun to look at the people whom you will share a class with. I also found out that my old chemistry lab partner will be in my Wildlife class. Another fun thing about this class concerns the essays that we have to write. Each essay is about a field trip we take to some local environmental site. One has to be to the Davis arboretum, easy, already have walked through it completely. The second one is cool though. We have 5 options, one of which is Jepson Prairie where I do salamander research. I already know all I need for that essay and more. As for the Life in the Oceans class, I already sent out a message in the chat room (first message) to find more EEB majors in that class (it is an EVE class after all). I do know that there are least three of us EEBers; Charlie, Tyler, and I. If we can find more, we shall be able to build the EEB clan and triumph in the glory of evolution and ecology!

And now I arrive back in Davis at the end of it all. So here is the end of this entry. Good bye!