Clothing Haul

Hello!

I'm not one to do the whole makeup guru, fashion blog stuff, but I am a girl that still loves to find cute clothes at a cheap price. Of course since school is almost back in session, there are a bunch of deals on clothes and anything else needed for college and school. To take advantage of these deals and even try to get more of a deal, I stopped by my local TJ Maxx and Marshalls. I just want to apologize now for the iffy quality of pictures. The lighting also makes some of the colors come out funny.

Express denim shorts

Retail: $32.00

Marshalls: $16.99

Abercrombie & Fitch knit top

Retail: $16.00

Marshalls: $9.99

Active basic V-neck tee

Retail: $7.00

Marshalls: $5.99

Cynthia Rowley V-neck tee

Retail: $20.00

T J Maxx: $9.99

Mine skinny jeans

Retail: $22.00

T J Maxx: $14.99

BeBop lace dress

Retail: $24.00

T J Maxx: $16.99

I also stopped by Charming Charlie to buy some jewelry. Sorry I didn't take a picture of the necklace I got but I also found a really nice knit top.

Charming Charlie flowy knit top

Retail: $15.00

I paid $6.99 as it was on clearance

My two favorite finds are definitely the dress and skinny jeans. I don't really want to call the pants jeans because they aren't made from a denim material. If anything they are more like the Pixie Pants from J Crew which makes this find even better because those pants go for $98.00. In other words, I think I found a really great dupe for those pants, and they are going to be very useful for many different outfits.

Typography Wall Art

Hey guys,

I'm excited to announce that during this upcoming school year, I will be a Resident Assistant (RA) for my university. I will be working with freshman in a Global Cultures living learning community (LLC). Because I'm not willing to tell you guys which university I attend, the amount of information I can tell you guys will depend on whether or not it reveals my colleges identity. Regardless, I hope to tell you as much about my experience as I can especially since this will be my first year as a RA and I don't know yet what to expect. Training starts for me in a week in which I will get to know my fellow staff members and prepare the dorm for the incoming class of 2017.

Now on to the main point of this post. Because I am an RA, I will have a room all to myself. As such, I've been trying to figure out how to decorate the greater amount of space I will have. As a proud nerdfighter, I decided to make some 3D typography letters spelling out DFTBA pictured below. I'm really happy with how these turned out!

 

How to Shadow a Doctor

Hey guys!

In order to accompany the recent bombardment of blog posts about my doctor shadowing experience, I have made a YouTube video giving you guys some tips of accomplishing this task yourselves. It's a very general video to help give you guys a basic understanding of what to do and what to expect. If you would like any specific questions answered feel free to leave them in the comments of this post or in the comments of my video which will be below. If you want to read about my experiences in a more detailed manner be sure to read the three posts I have written as well. And if you guys like to know more about my pre-med experience so far please let me know because I would love to tell you about the other things I've been doing to help me with my medical school applications.

OR Observation

Hey guys!

Long time no blog! Sorry. :/

As you guys may already know, I want to become a doctor. And as you have seen, I reposted my posts about my ER shadowing experience. Well last week (7/18/13) I completed my third doctor shadowing experience by following an anesthesiologist. While I know many will wonder why I didn't choose a surgeon to shadow, it's because I hoped to be exposed to many different types of surgeries rather than those limited to the type of surgeon I shadow.

My experience began with a rocky start because the OR was slow and the anesthesiologist I was supposed to shadow was allowed to take the day off. Luckily, two other anesthesiologists were kind enough to allow me to shadow them instead. After changing into scrubs, a cap, mask, and shoe covers, I felt like a real member of the medical care team. During the first case I was able to view down a patient's throat and see the cords before a breathing tube was put in place. Instead of staying and watching that procedure I was able to go and watch a CABG from start to finish. This is an open heart surgery and more commonly known as a heart bypass. Rather than taking a vein from the leg, the surgeon chose to use a mammary artery from the chest wall. Then because the patient had very small and delicate vessels, the surgeon chose to put the patient on the heart-lung machine. All in all, the entire procedure was very awesome and only took about two hours.

Before I had to leave, I was able to watch an epidural be administered for a patient having a procedure done on his prostate. While much less interesting than an open heart surgery, it was still interesting to see a first hand viewpoint of a very popular form of anesthesia, especially for pregnant women in labor. My conclusion about whether I would want one for if/when I have a baby is that the worst part isn't even when the medicine is administered, it's when the doctor numbs the area with a local anesthetic. Interesting enough, that medicine is used a lot for patients who need stitches.

The rest of my OR experience was a little less eventful. The number of surgeries and procedures was too low for there to be a need for three anesthesiologists and so another doctor was allowed to go home. This then put more pressure on the remaining doctor I was shadowing to complete all the tasks and prevented me from properly viewing more procedures. 

Nevertheless, I am very grateful to the doctors and OR department for allowing me to stick around even when my prior shadowing agreement fell through. I also realized just how much authority and responsibility a doctor has especially in a department like the OR that has a strict schedule and rules to follow. Anesthesiologists have to keep track of all nurse anesthetists making sure a patient remains under anesthesia during the procedure and that all surgeries start on time so that every other member of the operating team can move on with their jobs.

Let me know if there is more information you would like about shadowing doctors or just the pre-med experience in general.

Lifescouts: Keyboard

Hey!

I really want to come up with a cute greeting to use for these blogs, because sometimes I get tired of putting hi, hello, and hey. Any ideas for me?

This badge is for playing a keyboard.

Now to me, I don't see many differences between playing a keyboard and playing a piano so I don't understand why they are separate badges, but that means I get one more to claim. The only keyboard I've ever owned was a little toy keyboard given to me for Christmas by my aunt and I think only has 3 or 4 octaves on it. Even though it's small, I love it because it will record one song that you play at a time and teach you how to play 10 pre-recorded songs. Other than that, I've played keyboards at friends' houses just because it was there and they didn't have a piano. 

Sorry this didn't have a fun story!

Badge count: 21

Lifescouts: Piano

Hi!

In continuing with my Lifescouts series, my next badge is the piano badge.

When I was four years old, my mom gave me the option to either start taking dance lessons or piano lessons. I chose dance and so she set me up with ballet classes. During my first class, I got freaked out and started crying and stopped taking lessons before the first recital. Then she tried to set me up with piano lessons. The only problem was no teacher wanted to teach me because they didn't think I knew the alphabet or would sit still long enough to learn anything. Until she found my first teacher who was willing to teach me because I knew the alphabet. She was the best teacher and I remember every time I finished a lesson, she would let me throw a tennis ball to her golden retriever before my mom and I left. Sadly, I had to stop taking lessons because we were moving. Of course I found a new teacher and continued taking lessons until the eighth grade. I had gotten bored with playing the piano because I had seen all my other friends learning songs I wanted to play even though they were on lower levels than I was on and yet my teacher wouldn't let me play them. My first piano teacher always thought that I had great potential and would become a great and famous piano player someday. She even gave me a music composition book so that I could write my own songs and told my mom to keep her in the loop with any awards or competitions I won. I sometimes regret the fact that I stopped taking lessons and wonder where I would be with my piano playing if we hadn't moved. Nevertheless, I will still sometimes sit down and play some of the songs that I always enjoyed.

Badge count: 20

Lifescouts: Performing on Stage

Hello!

I hope all is well in your life! Since I'm almost two months behind in my lifescouts badge, I decided to try and catch up. This badge is for performing on stage which I have done on many occasions because of piano recitals, concerts for chorus, and speech and debate. I don't really have an extremely funny or embarrassing story to tell you because luckily I don't suffer from any extreme stage fright.

However, one year during my annual spring piano recital where all of the students who took lessons with my piano teacher played one or two pieces to show off what they learned that year. I think it may have been my third or fourth recital with this teacher at this venue and yet I didn't quite understand how she decided to assign our seats in the church where our recital was held. See, when we walked in before the recital began, we were to go to the middle section of reserved pews where the recital programs were placed on the seats. Each program had one name circled which signified that that was your seat. Logically, I thought that we would be seated in order of the program so that when the person next to you returned from playing his or her piece, you knew that it was your turn to go. This recital didn't work like that. I was way in the back and students were getting up from random areas in the reserved section, so I didn't know when to go. Of course, if I knew who the person was that was to go before me I wouldn't have any problem, but I didn't. Therefore in an attempt to count the people who had gone and thus figure out where we were in the program, I assumed that I knew when I was supposed to go. I even waited a bit to see if anyone else was getting up to play. Since I didn't see anyone go, I went ahead and got up to play. Once I sat down, my piano teacher made an announcement that I was not the person whose place I had taken, and that now we were back on track with the program. To this day, I still don't know how I was supposed to know when I was to get up and play, but whatever.

Badge count: 19

Lifescouts: Bowling Badge

Hello!

I think some of the badges for nerd week aren't necessarily activities done solely by nerds, but I guess I would think things like that because I am a nerd.

I've been bowling many times, but I'm not an amazing bowler that can get a perfect 300 or a horrible bowler, just average. At the university I transferred from, there was a bowling alley in the student union. It was really cheap to play and included rental shoes and the bowling ball. It also didn't have the customary cigarette smell that a lot of the bowling alleys in my hometown have. It was in that bowling alley that I had bowled last. I went with the girls of my Bible study as well as the freshmen boys study. It was a really great time to bond with other people and just blow off some steam. Then afterwards we went to the dining hall for "Cookie Break" where they give you two free cookies and a cup of milk for free as long as you are a student. I really miss those kids. . . 

Badge count: 18

Lifescouts: Observatory Badge

Hi!

I think I'm getting better at writing shorter posts. Or maybe I just have less to say about things right now. Do you guys prefer the longer or shorter posts?

First off I want to say that this badge is really pretty to me. I don't really know why but it looks so cool and realistic. My observatory experience comes from some fieldtrip I went on while I was in elementary school. There's a local science center in my hometown where my elementary school loved to take us depending on what we were learning about in science class. I don't actually know what the science center does, like if research actually goes on there or if it's just to give enriching science experiences for kids. Either way, they have an observatory and we got to go in and look at the stars. I specifically remembering my teacher telling us that if we fell asleep we would be in big trouble. I remember thinking that everything was really cool and trying to memorize the different constellations, but I couldn't really tell you any of that information now. Still it was a fun fieldtrip.

Badge count: 17

Lifescouts: Scrabble Badge

Hello!

As the days continue on, its starting to hit me that I'm almost done with my sophomore year of college. And if that wasn't enough of a wake-up call, I have to start prepping for the MCAT and thinking about medical schools. But to keep me in my unrealistic world of never growing up for a little while longer, I'll save the "ahhh, is my life on track" post for another time.

My streak has been broken by the marching band badge. I guess that's what happens when I play the piano and physically cannot march on the field playing my instrument with my high school marching band. However, I have played scrabble. . . badly. I've never sat down and played the physical game with three other friends, but have played it online. And no I'm not talking about Words With Friends because I'm not sure if that counts. The thing about scrabble for me is that I never really got into it. I always felt limited by the letters I had and the letters on the board, because I hope it's not my vocabulary that hindered me. Either way, scrabble is a good game to play when trying to figure out who is the most creative and verbally savvy person in your friend group.

Badge count: 16

Lifescouts: Rubik's Cube

Hi!

I'm on a roll with these nerd badges!

The Rubik's cube is something that I wouldn't have gotten interested in if it wasn't for my mom. I don't remember why she got so interested but she wanted to learn how to solve it and thus so did I. We started out messing around with this miniature Rubik's Cube keychain that isn't even Rubik's brand. In fact we messed with it so much that the stickers started to come off and the pieces fall apart. By that time I was literally putting the pieces together. So my mom decided to invest in a real Rubik's cube and it now sits completed on my desk at home. For I a while I kept trying to beat my time at how fast I could complete it, but I think I never got below 3 minutes. I actually wonder if I can still complete one. . .

Badge count: 15

ER Observation 2

Hello!

Today (3/14/13) I did my second day of shadowing in the ER. Same doctor, same hospital, but a whole lot more chaotic. Well maybe not a whole lot but definitely more eventful for me in regards of procedures.

The main thing that stands out in my mind is the code that came into the ER. I know this sounds really bad, but before I went for my first day of shadowing, I told my friend that I kinda wanted someone to code so I could see how a hospital tries to revive a patient. I guess I got my wish. . . in a really morbid way. I was with the doctor in a patient room getting a better history on a patient that came in due to lack of consciousness and some chest pain. Out in the hallway was some yelling and a gurney with a doctor doing compressions. One of the other doctors came in and asked if he could steal me and led me to the room where they were trying to revive the John Doe who came into the ER in cardiac arrest. The main difference I noticed from a code in real life and a code on TV is the speed of compressions administered to the patient. While on TV, it does appear rushed and urgent, it doesn't come close to the extent in real life. In order to revive a patient and continue blood profusion to the brain, you need to do 100 beats in a minute and those doctors/nurses/transport did a good job doing compressions at about 121 beats per minute. It was also exciting for me because I got to help slightly. If they needed more gloves, I got them gloves. I opened and prepared epinephrine when the nurses arms were full. And finally I held an IV pump so that fluids would be administered. Also, the whole rubbing paddles together and shocking the patient with 300 joules of electricity doesn't happen anymore. They have a defibrillator that delivers the shock for them and it only goes up to 200 joules. They did get a sinus rhythm for about 5 minutes but never got a strong pulse and eventually lost the rhythm. Sadly, they eventually decided to stop and call it.

In comparison, the rest of my day was a little uneventful. Rather than a theme of abdominal pain like Monday, today's theme was shortness of breath. Other than that I watched an echocardiogram done and and abscess removed.

I guess upon my immediate reflection of my shadowing at the ER, I realized I can handle the blood, stool, and puke that comes with being a doctor. All in all, this was a success.

Lifescouts: Video Games

Hello!

Have you guys ever watched/heard of the channel on YouTube "My Drunk Kitchen"? Well Hannah Hart, who is the host, has a specific way of saying hello that is kinda her thing and now whenever I type "Hello!" that's what I say in my head. Thanks Hannah.

This badge is another badge that I feel a lot of people should have and doesn't make me special. And then I start to think there are a lot of people less fortunate than you and realize that this is a #firstworldproblem.

There's also no way to really tell a story about this. I'm not an award winning video game player with the high score on a game at my local arcade, but at least I know I've dabbled in a few video games. While I wasn't the video game obsessed kid that played games immediately upon coming home from school, I was obsessed with Pokemon; and what kid wasn't from my generation. What's really surprising is my mom got pretty into the game too. She's the type of person who takes the "Gotta catch them all" slogan seriously and really tried to catch all the Pokemon. In fact she got really discouraged when she realized that you could only get certain Pokemon in certain games. I only had the gold version. In fact, if I hadn't won an award from my third grade teacher and got to go to a baseball game for free, I never would have won my GameBoy color or the Pokemon gold game. I really miss those days where the only thing I had to worry about was whether or not I could beat Misty the gym leader. I also want to comment on the insanity that is the new Pokemon games. The new Pokemon do not count as real Pokemon to me because they aren't a part of the original 150. Plus, I've heard the new games are kinda bad. But at least that trend lives on for this generation.

Badge count: 14

Lifescouts: Chess

Hi!

I'm starting to realize that the last few lifescouts posts about how I got certain badges are very interesting. Or at least in my opinion. Like my stories don't have any interesting twist or funny moments. Sorry! But not everything in a person's life can be as interesting as people wish they were.

I've finally caught up to nerd month! I'm really looking forward to this month because then I can gauge exactly how big of a nerd I am. And I'm saying that in a good way.

Now just because I've played chess before doesn't mean I'm good at it. In fact I think I'm really bad at it mainly because I have such a hard time remembering how certain pieces can move. There are so many aspects to take into consideration when playing chess and I just haven't gotten enough practice to fully understand how to strategize. I've also played the Chinese version of chess, which from what I can tell is the exact same rules as the chess you're thinking of. I believe all the pieces are the same and the goal is the same. Really it seems like the only difference is that the pieces are in carved into shapes and they have Chinese characters on it. Are you guys good at chess?

Badge count: 13

Lifescouts: Horse-drawn Cart

Hi!

This badge is another one that doesn't come with a particularly interesting story.

During my elementary school years, I would go to daycare after school so that I wouldn't stay home alone until my parents got back from work. Then during the summer, I would attend that daycare for the majority of the day since no one could stay at home with me during the day. Since daycare was a summer camp of sorts, they planned random fieldtrips for us to go on so that we would learn something during the summer. Once of those trips was to a farm where they took us on a horse drawn cart tour of the property. The only distinct thing I remember from the trip was that we stopped in the road because our tour guide noticed this plant known for it's stinky smell. Basically, it smelled like a skunk if the leaves were damaged in anyway and that smell served as a protection mechanism. I also learned that day that if you make a hole in the middle of a weed with a rake or something and then put grass seeds in the hole, the grass will overtake the weed and all your weeds are gone. Just a fun tip for you guys, but I have no idea if it works.

Badge count: 13

ER Observation 1

Hi guys!

Today (3/11/13) I shadowed a doctor for the first time. He is the director of the Emergency Department and has been practicing medicine for about 20 years.

Now on to my experience. The hospital I shadowed at isn't a major trauma center so it definitely wasn't like you see on TV where every patient who comes in on an ambulance has a gun shot wound or was in a major car crash. No one coded and no one went running to save a persons life. Really today's theme was sutures and abdominal pain. . . not the most exciting day of my life. But it had its perks. I had never seen anyone suture a real laceration. I mean I had done practice sutures on a pig foot during a summer program but I'd never seen it done on a real patient and trying to consider if the skin is strong enough or how to make the cut heal in a pretty manner.

The only other thing that was really apparent to me was how amazing it is for doctors to take the information from a patient history and additional labs and determine a diagnosis. For the ER the goal is to discover what is the cause of their complaint and how can that cause be fixed. Or if the patient has a simple problem like a deep cut to the face, then the solution is to simply put in sutures.

I am a little disappointed that there wasn't a big mysterious case that ended in a huge surgery, but that is the reality of being a doctor. There was a patient that came in screaming, seeing dead relatives and believing that the doctor was God, but really the only problem was she hadn't been taking her anti-psychotic medication.

That's all I have for you guys! Part of the reason for this post was to keep you up to date with my life, but to also help remind me two years down the road of what happened during my doctor shadowing.

Lifescouts: Pet Owning

Hello!

The weather might be great where you are reading this, but I just want to comment on how bizarre the winter has been here where I am. One week it's 70 degrees with the sun shining and seems like we completely skipped over winter again and then the next week it's 30 degrees with wind blowing at like 15 mph. To make it worse, when it's warm it rains and when it's cold it doesn't so there's no chance of us getting snow even though at times it's cold enough.

Moving on to my new badge:

Growing up I had always wanted a pet whether that pet be a dog, cat, or guinea pig. However, I was never allowed to get one because my parents didn't want to have to take care of it for me and my mom is allergic to so many different things. But things looked up for me when I entered 3rd grade and for a science project the entire third grade class began making aquariums and terrariums so that we could take care of fish, frogs, crabs, and roly polys. After building the homes and taking care of them at school for a while, all the kids were given the opportunity to take the animals home. Everyone's favorite, including mine, was the crab and they were the first to run out. So I was left bringing home two frogs. I loved my frogs so much and named them Strawberry and Blueberry. But just like any other kid, I got bored of them. Then of course they eventually died. Not from my lack of care for them though! Since then I've had some fish, but having those types of pets never stuck with me because you can't really interact with them, you know?

Badge count: 12

Lifescouts: Horseback Riding

Hi! How are you guys doing on your badge counts?

My memory of how I earned my horseback riding badge is a little unclear. Really the only reason why I know I have this badge is because there are pictures of toddler me in a really adorable cowgirl outfit riding a horse. Since I was so small it was probably a pony, but they're the same species so it counts! From what I can tell about the pictures, I was at a friend's birthday party and in true stereotypical little girl fashion, my friend had a pony ride at her party. I don't remember if I enjoyed riding the horse or if I was afraid, but I did it. What I would really love is to go trail riding some day because I think horses are such beautiful and intelligent creatures.

Badge count: 11

Lifescouts: Zoo Badge

Long time no see! Which of course is my fault but schoolwork has been picking up and I'm just trying to finish out my sophomore year strong. I cannot believe that I'm almost a junior which for me brings a new RA job, the start of my MCAT studying and research into medical schools. Everything ahead of me seems so daunting, but that's life and I just have to take it one step at a time. Or at least that's what I try to tell myself.

In keeping with my current trend on blog lately, I have another Lifescouts badge to share. I know I'm really behind on these, but cut me some slack! Since Alex has started doing theme months, I want to get caught up on animal month so I can see how big of a nerd I actually am. :)

I feel like the zoo badge is one of the least exciting because I'm sure that a majority of kids have gone to the zoo on a field trip during elementary school. I actually can't even tell you how many times I've been to a zoo. There's the local one in my town that celebrated the birth of a baby giraffe last year to a zoo in China where I got to see a panda. Really the only reason my parents were willing to go to the zoo was because I wouldn't stop talking about wanting to see a panda, and man did I have fun. It was a dreadful rainy day and the animals weren't too happy but my wish came true!

Sorry I don't have a more interesting story to tell about this badge, but at least it's short and sweet!

Badge count: 10

ECT Observation

I had meant to post this a long time ago seeing as I observed on November 26. . .

Hello!

As a part of my financial aid for college, I was given work study money. Since I know I want to become a doctor I hoped that my job would be something research or at least science related. After a lot of disappointing rejections and interview, I finally got a job at a local geriatric hospital/outpatient center/health center. As you can probably tell, this place helps patients with a lot of different ailments but the common factor among all of them is their age. More specifically, I work with the department of psychiatry that addresses depression in the elderly. Since the medical community does not know very much about depression and other mental illness no matter what the age, the place where I work tries to create more awareness for the problems depression patients face. When patients with depression do not respond or cannot tolerate depression medication, ECT or electroconvulsive therapy, is suggested.

Electroconvulsive therapy sounds scary and if you know anything about what ECT is you are probably thinking about extremely dangerous and harmful treatments where the patients are shocked. Yes, an electrical current is sent through there brain, but no, its not in anyway harmful or painful for the patient. The patients are put under general anesthesia and monitored by a doctor, nurse, and anesthesiologist the entire time. When I went in to observe, I was expecting a long treatment time, but the goal is to send as strong of a current a patient can tolerate in about an 8 second period. It seems like it takes longer to get the patients hooked up to the heart monitor and EEG than it is to actually administer the treatment.

Getting to observe ECT was particularly rewarding to me also because I was able to help with the procedure. In no way were they going to let me administer the drugs or hyper/hypoventilate the patients, but I was able to interact with the patients and aid in the process some. There was one patient who was particularly difficult for the nurses to handle. She was trying to pull out her IV, get out of the bed, and kept muttering, "She wants to get out, I have to help her get out!" Turns out this patient has a history of dementia. I ended up holding her hand and trying to calm her down enough for the anesthesiologist to get the medicine into her IV line and eventually put her to sleep. The entire time we were working with this patient I was scared and worried I would screw something up, a feeling I had the entire time I was there, but it ended up working out really well.

I wish I could have stayed and watched more procedures done, but I had to go to class. I also wish I had asked the questions that have been rattling around in my brain ever since that day, but I was just trying to take everything in and not get in their way. Either way, I have no regrets about becoming a doctor because this experience was so invigorating and I left that place with a sense of accomplishment and a smile on my face.

Have you interned anywhere pertaining to the field you want to enter?

Lifescouts: Fishing

Hello!

My story for this badge also doesn't contain any deep sea fishing experiences, but fishing is fishing.

My family owns a lake house. And of course one of the many things you can do on a lake is fish. Now this lake is right next to a nuclear power plant so we are advised to not actually eat any of the fish from the lake. Sadly enough, when the story I'm about to tell you takes place, neither my parents now I knew this and so we might develop cancer later down the road. One summer day we take the boat out onto the lake with a cooler full of soda, a tank full of gas, fishing rods, and swim suits. Before getting in and swimming with the fishes, we tried to see if we could catch a few. I had my trusty fuzzy orange bait that looked really cool to me and tried my luck. Apparently the fish thought my bait was cool too because after maybe an hour I felt a tug on my line. I was so surprised and freaked out I didn't know what to do! I started reeling in the line and there was a catfish flopping on my rod. I was too afraid to touch it, so I had my dad unhook my bait from its mouth. Because we thought we could eat it, we took the sodas out of the cooler, filled the cooler with water from the lake and put the fish in so it would stay alive as we spent the rest of the day on the lake. After no more luck or bites, we went home and my parents proceeded to kill the fish, clean, and cook it. I have to say it was pretty tasty but I was a little weirded out about eating something I had caught earlier that day. Now I love fish, but it seemed a little bizarre to me. Since that day I haven't had any more luck and my family has become wiser about what we eat from the lake.

Have you ever been deep sea fishing?

Badge count: 9

Lifescouts: Swimming

Hi!

This badge doesn't have a long story because it's not like I've made it to the US Olympic Swimming Team.

Really all I can say is that I essentially taught myself how to swim. My mom tells me that we visited a park with a lake and I got in and started doggy paddling. From there when I went to the pool with my friends I tried to copy what they were doing. I also tried to copy my mom. I don't have any endurance but apparently I have a pretty good freestyle because whenever I do laps someone tells me that I have great form. . . whatever that means. All I can say is I'm proud that I can make it from one side of the pool to the other at a pretty moderate pace while still being able to catch some air.

How did you learn to swim?

Badge count: 8

Lifescouts: Tree Planting

Hi!

It's so hard to keep up with the constant flow of badges with school, but I'm trying! However Alex recently posted that Lifescouts will now have a new badge every 10 days and each month will have a theme. So that's exciting! And might give me a chance to catch up or earn more badges! You can read the other stats about most and least popular badges here Now on to the story.

At my university, we have a day where students and alumni from around the world do some type of service for our communities. Falling into the spirit of volunteerism, I signed up to volunteer at Kittredge Park not very far from our campus. There we mulched, pulled weeds, painted, and planted trees! Now I had helped my dad plant the trees in our backyard when we first moved into our house, but I had never planted a tree that people visiting the park would get to enjoy. Naturally I wanted to make sure that what we did wasn't going to kill the tree. These trees were uprooted from their initial home and moved so that they would have a better chance at success. So myself and friend dug a hole, removed the tree from its pot, and placed it in its new home. It now even has a sign designating what type of tree it is. We covered the loose dirt with some mulch and gave it a good watering. I haven't been down to see it since we've planted it but hopefully it's doing ok with all the crazy weather we've been having. Amazingly enough planting that tree gave me a sense of accomplishment because I knew that I was helping add more oxygen to our environment.

Badge count: 7

Lifescouts: Picnic

Hello!

This badge isn't the most exotic, and none of mine really are, but brings back a great memory.

When I was a freshman in high school, I had to almost entirely rebuild my friend group as most of my friends from middle school went to a different high school than me. Luckily, my friends from middle school that did go to the same high school as me also had friends who would be attending our high school. From there I became the friend of a friend. While we started out as acquaintances, one of the sweetest and most outgoing people I know wanted to have a picnic in a park downtown during Labor Day since we wouldn't be having school. I was anxious since I didn't know all the people, but looking back on it now, I'm so glad I went. We all brought our own lunches and something little to share. Since my mom was on-call at the hospital, she had to go in and brought be along since it would be on the way to my picnic. I look back on that day as the day where I moved from acquaintance to friend with a lot of the girls that I love and still talk to today even though we all went to different colleges. During that picnic we got to do crazy things like roll down a grassy hill, play catchphrase, and just talk. Thinking back on it now, I can't believe how much the six or so crazy nerdy girls we were back then have grown and become better friends. We've been through a lot together since then, and I hope we get to make a lot more memories in the future.

Do you still have a friend or group of friends that you've known for a while?

Badge count: 6

Lifescouts: Sunrise

Hello!

At this moment I really should be doing homework or working on my RA application but who really wants to do that. Instead I'm going to tell you about my sunrise experience(s).

This past summer my five close girl friends and I decided that we wanted to roadtrip to Wilmington, NC where Dawson's Creek was filmed. (Also One Tree Hill but we like Dawson's Creek better). Since it's about a five hour drive from where we live, we decided to meet at some ridiculous time like 5:30 in the morning to give us time to get lost and have a good solid day in Wilmington. We did our research and planned out the places we wanted to visit that were the location of notable scenes from the TV show. As we are driving to Wilmington, we were able to see the sun rise from the car. It wasn't the most amazing view but it's still a sunrise. And because we spent so much time at Wilmington and it does take that long to get back, we were also able to watch the sunset. It was an amazing day and something I'll remember for a while. Sure we had hiccups along the way but it was an experience nonetheless. Plus, I got to cross my desire of taking a roadtrip with friends off of my bucket list.

You may be wondering why I wrote "experience(s)" earlier. Well this next story wasn't something I was actually awake for but got to hear the story a little later. My group of friends from high school planned out our prom like no tomorrow. This of course didn't prevent any "prama" (prom drama) by any means but we knew we wanted to go to take pictures, eat dinner together, attend after prom, and then have our own little after after prom. Some of my friends were determined to stay up all night because it was prom and what else would you do. So they played some Mario Kart and talked like any good nerdy teenagers. Then because they were still awake and it was that early in the morning, they wanted to watch the sunrise. Now keep in mind that they had been up for at least 20 hours straight so of course they were delirious. Somehow one of my friends was called a Snorlax from Pokemon and another one of my friends became convinced that a lamppost in the street was the sun. In fact she said, "Guys the sun isn't moving" to which my friends all responded, "The sun is over there..." It was way more funny and entertaining in the moment than what you're probably thinking at this moment but whenever I hear that story it just makes me love my friends even more.

How are you guys doing on your badges?

Badge count: 5

Lifescouts: Niagara Falls

Hello!

Some of the Lifescout badges are really hard to get! This one is another badge that I know I earned but don't really have memories of:

My parents have told me that we went to the Canada-United States border to look at the Niagara Falls on New Year's. All I really know about this trip is that it was a lot of fun and that we were soaked. I have seen pictures from my visit there but don't have any memories of it. You would think that seeing this gigantic waterfall and being showered with water would remain in my memories but I guess not. It's really funny the things you remember from your childhood. . . Sorry this is another boring story :/

Badge count: 4

Lifescouts: Driving

Hi!

I hope you guys are enjoying the Lifescouts posts. I feel like this badge isn't that big of an accomplishment:

However after writing that, I realize that having the ability to drive is kind of an accomplishment since there are many people who have tried multiple times to get their license and have failed. I was on track with getting my license. Where I live, you can get your learner's permit at 15 after passing a written multiple choice test about the laws of driving. I went to the DMV on my birthday after taking countless practice tests online and freaking myself out to the point that I tried to convince my mom not to take me. She however thought I was freaking out for no reason and insisted we go. To my surprise I got a 100 on the written exam. I was then able to start driving with a licensed driver in the front seat and begin learning how to physically drive. I learned how to drive mainly by my mom and took a driving class as well so I could get my regular license early. Then came the day where I actually had to drive. The one thing I always had an issue with was the 100 ft backup because for some reason I always drifted to the middle of the road. Which of course I ended up doing when taking my actual driving test. However, my examiner was nice enough to let me retry the 100 ft backup after finishing the rest of the test. Thus, I got my license!

Did you have a hard time getting your driver's license? Or do you not need to drive a car where you live?

Badge count: 3

Lifescouts: Empire State Building

Hi!

I hope you have checked out the Lifescouts tumblr and read some of the amazing things people have done to earn these badges and started telling your own stories!

My next badge is:

I don't actually remember my time at the Empire State building but know for a fact that I did visit because of the things my parents have told me. I used to live in upstate New York and so traveling to New York City wasn't that far of a drive for me and my parents. Unfortunately, when my parents and I went to go visit the Empire State building, they were doing construction and we were not able to go to the top. I know that this story isn't the best, but I love how people consider spitting or throwing a penny off the top the thing to do when you get to the Empire State building. I would never have the guts to do something like that in fear of hitting someone. However, I will say that your spit will not kill someone if it falls from the height of the Empire State building because if it could we would all die from rain.

Badge count: 2

Lifescouts: Mountain Climbing

Hello!

As a person who loves to waste time on Tumblr, I've been noticing this thing popping up called Lifescouts. What I had initially gathered from the blog was that you get badges for the different activities people should do in their life. Then Alex Day (nerimon) posted a video about how Lifescouts was his brainchild because he always wanted to collect badges like a Boy Scout but never signed up. Check out his video here. I've been meaning to join in on collecting badges, but instead of doing it on Tumblr, I wanted to post it here. The next couple of posts are going to be about the Lifescout badges I have collected and why I think I have earned the badges.

The first badge is:

Now I've gone hiking and climbed mountains, but definitely not mountains like Kilimanjaro or Everest. And my mountain climbing experiences do not in any way include rappelling or helmets, but even without the extreme danger I've had great times with my parents. My most recent encounter with mountain climbing occurred while I was on break from college with my parents and cousin. A popular attraction close to where I live is Chimney Rock. Unfortunately I wasn't able to climb up to the waterfall due to ice, but the views from the "chimney" and other attractions like the "Opera Box" still made the trip worth it.

I encourage you guys to go to the Lifescout tumblr and look at the other badges available. If you want to get involved then reblog the badges and write about your own experiences. You can also buy physical badges that look really awesome and collect the badges that way!

Badge count: 1