Thanksgiving Week

Hey guys,
Sorry it has been so long, I had two tests last week, one in calc and one in chem, and the chem one was so hard! I ended up getting a 72 on it, which was above the average (66) but still not up to my expectations. I'm not exactly sure how I did on my calculus test though, but I need to do good, and I didn't finish 3 problems.. which could be bad.
So this week is Thanksgiving, as probably all of you know, and we get off on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday! Whoop! Sadly, I have to work each day this week, including Thanksgiving, so I can't go home. Why are we open on Thanksgiving? Do people even go to the mall on Thanksgiving? Luckily on black Friday I only  have to work for 4 hours, which is super lucky considering it'll be so hectic.
I feel like I really just need to start studying for finals soon. They aren't for another 2 weeks, but I feel like I should start studying already, so that I can do good.
Do any of you have study tips? If you do, please comment them! Soon I'll do a post on my own study tips, and how I stay organized and what not!
God Bless,
Aly

Week: 11/1/15-11/7/15

Monday:

Enrollment. This simple term means so much to me because it can either make or break my timeline. So far it’s been making it after I’ve had melt downs that it’s breaking it. Lucky for me the things I have done this were not a semester milestone. So I skipped chemistry this morning so I didn’t have to deal with the school’s crappy wifi (no offense FSU). Since 7:30 I had been trying to enroll in my classes every 10 minutes. Finally it was 7:59 and it was my time to shine. 8:00 hit and I immediately pressed enroll, and after what seemed like hours of seeing the loading symbol on the page, I finally got my classes!

•  Orgo 1- kinda excited to be honest, and I’m totally gonna regret saying this next semester but yay for going up in the chemistry world
•  Calc 2- so not excited for this one.
•  French 1- totally excited to learn French! Je mapelle Aly. I’m sure I spelled that wrong…
•  Cell structure and function- believe it or not I’m actually really excited for this! I think cells are really fascinating and it’s really remarkable how they know what to do without any brain telling them what to do… they just do it all thanks to DNA and a chemical molecule that builds it!!
•  First Responders- This class is like an EMT course kind of. We learn and train to become on campus responders, which respond to 911 calls, and other stuff like that, as well as attend sporting events, and some other events in which we are needed. It’ll be really cool! The class is from 3-6 every MWF so it’s kind of a lot, and the tests will be interesting, and its competitive to get into, but it’ll be really interesting and amazing I think!

Currently I’m sitting in the library and I should be doing genetics right now but I’m talking to you fine people instead because genetics sucks and yeah. Also I have a pledge meeting tonight for Alpha Chi Sigma, our chemistry fraternity (nerdy I know), which means a quiz (yay!!! Not.). Then I’ll most likely be at the library tonight until like 1 am (when it closes…. Seriously it closes at the worst times I swear).

Hey guys I just got back from the library (1 am… typical) and I got all my genetics stuff copied (YAY) but the bad part is that I don’t understand any of it. So there’s that. Luckily I have an appointment with Dr. Bates tomorrow morning so that’s really good for me! Chadwick taught me some orgo (what he was studying for) and it kinda just made me more excited for orgo, even though he was freaking out for his test tomorrow. Oh, well!

Tuesday:

Hey guys! I just had my appointment with my genetics teacher and it was the best thing ever. I highly recommend going to office hours for all of your classes, whether you need it or not, because they’re great. Well, all of my experiences have been great. My teacher and I just went over the notes for the test for an hour. An hour. Just me and him. And it wasn’t awkward at all, which is really good! I was thinking I was good was like “I think I got this all” and he went, “I think you need some more help on the lac operon, and repressor genes.” So I stayed and we went over it a couple more times. Which was really good because now I understand (better) repressor genes and the whole lactose is present-glucose is present thing with the operon! Like he didn’t even care that I was there for an hour but he was just more than willing to help me! You could definitely tell that he wanted me to do well on this test! Right now I’m sitting in Starbucks at one of the bar things just going over my notes now. And honestly I have never felt more at peace. I’m day dreaming about snow and cold weather, while drinking coffee, and listening to classical Christmas music (yes I know I’m early), and I just have this feeling that I can do anything right now all because I understand my notes and it’s such a wonderful feeling! I really hope all of you have this feeling at least once. Later today I’ll be going to the genetics recitation with Chadwick and then we’ll be making our way back to the library to study some more! Fun stuff. Go genetics, go A’s on tests, go Aly, go premed. ~Update: I just read an article on the life of an intern and I’m so beyond excited. Must get a good grade on the MCAT.

Wednesday:

So this whole week our chem teacher has been in China and has had the other chem teacher come substitute for us and I absolutely do not like it. She writes down everything she says instead of having a power point which is really weird. Like that works for a math class because it kind of shows the method on how to do stuff, but I don’t think that it really works for chemistry class. You know what I mean? Some people like it but it’s really bugging me! But I guess to each his own, or that’s the saying or whatever. The class just puts me in a bad mood every morning with her. Calculus still sucks. I had a test last Tuesday and it still isn’t graded… hopefully it’ll be back Friday. So I had a genetics test today and I was really freaking out about it because I studied for it but I still didn’t feel prepared at all. We all have that feeling a lot, don’t we? I ended up getting an 81! When the average was a 69! Go me! That finally a relatively good test grade that I got in there and I could not be happier! This Wednesday may end up being good after all! I still have a chem lab report to write (not that hard hopefully) and some bio lab stuff to do! I have a feeling I may go to bed earlier than normal!

Thursday:

Chem lab this morning!! I honestly love chem lab! It’s so fun and hands on and everything! The only bad part is the lab report that we have to write after but it really isn’t as bad as people make it out to be! I don’t know about you guy’s lab reports but we have to write an abstract, procedure, data section, calculations, and a conclusion… which is actually a lot of writing and stuff and when you don’t know how to do the calculations, it can seem pretty awful… but when you actually know what’s going on it really isn’t that bad!! Between this lab, and my bio lab later tonight I get a full 6 hours to either get some work done, nap, or do something productive! So far, my “productiveness” has been watching youtube videos of x factor auditions and finishing writing to you guys, and looking into some stuff for next year!

Friday:

Chemistry, calculus, (no myth class today!) and genetics. So far, today has just been like every other day of the week. Studying, coffee, and school! The only thing to look forward to is my trip to Gainesville this weekend! Have a safe weekend all! 

God Bless,

Aly

Introduction / First Blog Post / History of My College Experience So Far

Hey guys!

My name is Alyssa (Aly) and I am a sophomore at Florida State University right now. I am a biochemistry major, with a premed track. The main purpose of this blog is basically for me to get my rants out about my daily struggles/ hardships of being a biochem major that wants to do premed... just beware for some semi-strong language, crying, me being pissed off, and possibly some friends popping up occasionally. 

So to start off the blog I will just tell you guys about my college experience so far. So I don't normally go out at all to clubs and what not like your typical college student. I mainly spend my time at the library with my good friend Chadwick and some other friends (their names will pop up occasionally)! So freshman year I wasn't even a science major. I was an actuarial science major, which is a lot of statistics. I mean I really enjoyed the sciences I took in high school but I was good at math in high school and it came easy to me, so why not, right? For advice, do not do major in something unless you have a passion for it. I think that this heavily influenced my decision to drop being an actuary major and changed to premed. So my first summer here I was in microeconomics and ENC1101. While in micro, I knew I wasn't really enjoying the whole "marginal cost and benefits" ordeal. So fall finally came around and I took macroeconomics (still an actuary major at this point), ENC1102, precalculus, trigonometry (ended up dropping it), and biology 1. I needed some science class so I could fill a requirement, and I thought a baby bio would be too easy, and I really liked biology and cells from high school, so cool, I'll do that. So I ended up loving it and decided to switch my major half way through the Fall 2014 semester to biochemistry. I also really enjoy doing things like volunteering at the hospital, and I practically grew up in the hospital (both of my parents work there) so doing something with medicine seemed like such a natural thing to do! So premed it is! 

Last spring I started getting into my premed prereqs and I took bio 2, chem 1, chem 1 lab, bio 1 lab, religion in the US, psychology. General psychology sucked to be quite honest. Some people absolutely loved it and said it was an easy A, but let me tell you- just because someone says its an easy A, this does not mean that it will also be an easy A for you. For me, I didn't particularly like psychology. My teacher really went over the people who influenced psychology but not really any psychological disorders. I think it just wasn't what I was expecting as a psychology class. I just expected more disorders than history of professors. Don't go by me though, your gen psych class could be completely different than mine! 

So as I said before, I dropped trigonometry in the fall. I would study and study and study, but it just didn't help me or my grade at all. And when I stay study, I mean study like 3 hours a day for this class, plus tutoring sessions. Nothing helped. So I dropped. I took it over the summer recently after my summer camp job, and absolutely loved it. It was such a wonderful course honestly! I'm not sure what changed, or why I suddenly understood everything, but I did, so I'm not questioning it, haha. 

That leaves this semester! So I am taking genetics, chem 2, chem 2 lab, bio 2 lab, calculus 1, and ancient mythology in the east and west, All these classes are pretty okay. Calculus is alright because I learned it previously but my teacher honestly sucks. My friend Colin (also a fellow biochem-premed major) and I complain about him every day. But there is nothing I can do about it except stick it out, and hope for the best. Genetics is also alright. In itself its an amazing class. Its really interesting to see the small aspects of a cell and to know that it all happens on its own with no directing figure and stuff. Honestly its so mind blowing. I'm pretty sure I say this at least like twice a day and my friends get so annoyed with it. All my other classes are awesome and I have really great teachers this semester (minus my stinking calc teacher, sorry if you're reading this sir- but its the truth). 

I hope you other premeds know that you're not alone in your struggles and I am going through all of them with you. 

God Bless,

Aly