The Story - Long Version: Chapter 2

Chapter 2: That doesn't even make sense!!!

After slamming into the invisible wall that was separating me from medical school, I stood up, dusted myself off, groped along until I found the edge of said invisible wall, and figured out that there was a way to squeeze past it and continue along the path I had set for myself. This small passageway presented itself in the form of an acceptance letter from Ross Medical School in the Caribbean. Heck, it didn't even take a letter. They guy interviewing me practically told me I was accepted before I left...it just had to be approved by the board (note that he was also baffled by the fact that I had not already been accepted to more than one school, even more that I had not even been granted an interview). Mind you, I only applied to Ross after having already smeared face grease all over the wall. As it follows, I only applied after I had already clearly gotten the message that med school was not where I was supposed to be. 

As I was applying to Last Chance U (Ross), I also applied to a couple of Master's programs. My thought was that I could make my med school application even stronger by adding a graduate degree that included thesis research and by giving myself ample opportunity to retake and boost my score on the MCAT. So I applied to a program in Cytotechnology at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) and a program in Forensic Science at the University of Central Florida (UCF). MUSC is notorious for being ridiculously hard to get into if you are an out-of-state applicant. As I am from Florida, I fit the out-of-state category. Yet not more than two weeks after I put my application in the mail for the cytotech program, I had an acceptance letter in hand. Seriously?! Did they even look at my application? How in the world was I accepted to a program at MUSC as an out-of-state applicant so quickly??? That did not make sense. UCF was a bit slower in response, but I finally received an offer letter from them as well. I didn't realize it at the time, but that program was also highly competitive as they only accepted about 5 students per year. 

So I had a choice to make - should I settle for a medical school that I don't really want to go to when I have clearly gotten the message that I'm not meant to be in med school right now, should I do the Cytotech program which would definitely look good on a med school app later, or should I go for the Forensic Science program which would just be more fun and interesting but not so applicable to medicine? I chose the Forensic Science program. And so you say, "well, that doesn't really make sense. If your plan was to strengthen your med school application, why would not go with the Cytotech program?" My answer: look at the chapter title. Hello!!! Choosing the Forensic Science program fit the theme of my life at that point in time. Not that this fact ever crossed my mind in the decision making process. It simply fits in retrospect. Actually, UCF was closer to family, cost quite a bit less since I was an in-state applicant, and I figured if I was going to spend a couple of years doing a grad program simply as an application booster, I may as well choose the one that I thought would be more entertaining. 

Little did I know, the tension between the then new chair of the chemistry department and the head of the Forensic Science Master's program, among other problems, would cause the program to completely crumble about a year after I started in it. Luckily, I was the first to defect to another department simply based on the fact that there were no labs in the chemistry department available to do my thesis research in, and the department chair had changed policy such that students in the Forensic Science program (and maybe the whole chem dept...I don't know) could not complete their thesis research in another department but had failed to inform the program head of this change. This all came to light about a week before the first semester started, so I quietly worked in a lab in the biology department until I could officially be accepted into the biology Master's program the next semester. The rest of the students in the Forensic Science Master's program who were not graduating that year either quit the program, transferred to another department or transferred to another school. Though it was something of a nightmare at the time, I can say now that it was a huge blessing if not just to get away from the cranky pants chemistry department. They were not nice people (with a few exceptions). More than that though, I seriously doubt that I ever would have ended up Champaign, the significance of which will be discussed in a later chapter, had I not done my thesis research under the mentorship of the fabulous Dr. Laurie von Kalm.

And so began my life as a grad student. I actually very much enjoyed my three years pushing flies, fighting with proteins, failing at western blots, wasting a year and a half on a project that went no where (I say wasting, but it was a learning experience) and then turning what seemed like a boring project into something quite interesting. Okay, so the data turned it into something quite interesting, not me. I was just there to translate. Of note, in the summer after my first year, our lab had the opportunity to be a part of a research team at NASA working on a fungus and fruit fly project that would send fungus and fruit flies into space on one of the shuttle missions and then see how the space environment affected pathogenicity of the fungus and susceptibility of the flies. It was a last minute deal that our lab was invited to be a part of the team and we expected to be a minimal part of the effort. Well, we ended up being a major part of the effort, but it only took a couple of weeks of our time. It was just neat to have the experience. Not many people can claim that they are proud owners of a piece of tape that has been in space. Well, I am here to tell you today that I the a proud owner of a piece of tape that went into space! Nee ner nee ner neeeee nerrr! Seriously though, as a result of our efforts, our team was the recipient of 3 different awards from NASA and the NASA Ames Research Center. What?! Three awards from NASA for 2 weeks worth of effort for something that just kinda seemed like a neat opportunity? Yep.

One of the fly cassettes after returning from space. The spots that you see are fruit fly pupal cases.

Standing in front of the space shuttle Discovery after it had been rolled out to the launch pad.

Announcement for the STS-121 shuttle mission. This is the mission that the flies and fungus were a part of.

One of the NASA Ames Research Center awards featuring my piece of space tape.

Close up of my space tape! Don't lie. I know you're jealous.

Nearing the end of year two of grad school, my brother sends me information for a scholarship offered through the Department of Defense. The SMART (Science, Math And Research for Transformation) scholarship, as it is called, was relatively new at the time. It is a scholarship for service that is aimed at recruiting promising young scientists into research careers with the DoD. At some point, they government realized that all of their scientists were dying off, and there were no up-and-coming young ones to replace them, so they decided they should do something about it. The SMART scholarship is part of what they decided to do. I visited the website, looked over the information, noticed that the application and all materials were due in something like one week (one week?!?!) and that it seemed to be focused heavily on engineering and computer science. They did mention that people in life sciences could apply, but looking through the research that the participating organizations do, it seemed like I would be a very bad fit. So I decided to apply. Hey, it never hurts to try! What would I have been losing other than $10 in transcripts and an hour or so of my time? Of course, I never really thought I had a chance. First of all, there didn't seem to be much room for Biologists in this scholarship program. Second, it was stressed multiple times that all application materials had to be by the deadline in order to be considered, and I knew that my transcripts and reference letters were not going to get there in time. But, of course, as is the theme, things that should happen don't happen, and things that shouldn't happen do - I got the scholarship. Even harder to believe, I was actually ranked 1st of all of the applicants in my grouping. What?! How?! What?! Exactly. I have a sneaking suspicion that those 3 awards from NASA did a lot for my ranking. 

And so by another exclamation of "that doesn't even make sense," I ended up in Champaign, Illinois, working as a chemist (read that again...yes, it says chemist) for the Army Corps of Engineers.