Chris Adkins August 15th, 2008
No ands, ifs, or buts about it: home life is boring. After three years of Vandy life, one grows accustomed to excitement on a daily basis. From the huge number of clubs eager for your membership to your friends right down the hall, college life is an exercise in juggling twenty different activities at once. Home life, on the other hand, is a little bit slower with long summer days stretching out, filled with leisurely completion of med school secondaries, endless hours of Olympics coverage, and lots of naps. Luckily, Vandy kids hail from all over the country, making visits possible to break up the summer doldrums.
My friend and teammate came to visit me last week, giving both of us a good diversion from summer jobs and hanging out with parents. Although my hometown of Melbourne has earned the nickname of “Melboring” among the younger crowd due to the dearth of fun, I took Isa’s visit as an opportunity to try to show my city in the best and most thrilling light. The best I could come up with was a trip to the pool, the ice skating rink, my high school, and a baseball game. Upon learning of our schedule, Isa momentarily questioned my idea of a “packed itinerary” that I had proclaimed I had in store. I responded that in Melbourne during the summer a day involving a journey to the library represents a day worth remembering. Despite the lack of activities, we made the most of our time, having fun regardless of what we were doing. I can’t say, though, that her visit didn’t make me want to return to campus that much more to see everyone else.
Luckily, I’ll be going back to Vanderbilt in just a few days, so my next post should be substantially more exciting. Until then, keep hanging in there.
P.S. - I tried to upload some sweet pictures of my week but there’s some sort of HTTP error. I’ll work on getting it figured out so you can enjoy the sights of Melbourne.
Chris Adkins August 7th, 2008
Trying to think of how to start off this reincarnation of my old blog, I went back to Commodore in Spain to take a look at how I introduced myself a little less than a year ago when the Vandy Blogs were just starting off. With another year of life under my belt including nearly four months in Madrid, I thought that I would be a changed man. I guess I was a little too ambitious…
Crew team? Still doing that, although now that I’m an officer and a van driver, my mornings start closer to 4:30 than 4:38 (big change, I know). Research with Dr. Friedman? You guessed it; I’m still chugging away at the lab bench, producing data on telomerase mutants like none other (except for all the other undergrads and grad students in my lab, I suppose!). In fact, I just returned home from Vanderbilt where I continued my research over the summer as well as mentored my wonderful rising sophomore intern Jessica so she can develop her own research project over the coming years. And, as for that paper I was so excited about, it finally made it to print (caution: link not for the faint of heart)! Interpreting at Matthew Walker? Well, pretty close. Instead of interpreting at the low-cost Matthew Walker Comprehensive Health Center, I now interpret at the free Shade Tree Clinic, a facility operated nearly entirely by Vanderbilt medical students. It’s been an unbelievably rewarding and educational experience and is one that I hope to continue until the day of graduation.
While I dabble in a few other activities on campus, these remain my big three, the ones that have already made me homesick for Vanderbilt after being at my real Florida home for only about a week. Over the next year, then, you can expect to hear a lot about them, hopefully giving you a better idea of the myriad activities available to Vanderbilt students (and hopefully it might just convince a few of you to give crew a shot!).
Another theme that you can expect to read about over the coming months is medical school. Or, better said, applying to medical school. Since it has consumed my life over the past month and secondary application essays are likely to consume it for the next month, it will inevitably sneak into this blog. If lady luck is on my side, I might even get to write about all the great cities and schools I travel to for interviews. Wish me luck; heaven knows anyone going through this process can use as much as they can get!
Until next time.