Both the end and the beginning...

14 weeks is both an eternity and a heartbeat.  A lot can happen in this time frame and a lot has happened.  The semester started in January when we were buried in snow but excited for a clean slate and a new beginning.  However, the semester soon lost its novelty as we trudge through the snow day after day, devoting myself to school and running.  I yearned for spring break and a welcome reprieve from the daily bombardment of information.  After spring break I returned ready for outdoor track and the home stretch of the semester.  However, I yet again forgot how fast the year goes after spring break.  It is now April 14^th and I am looking at my dwindling academic calendar than is crammed with finals, papers, and presentations. 

            How do I identify myself 14 weeks after that first blog post?  I am the same person but with more experiences, knowledge, and a slightly different perspective.  I have been challenged beyond what I thought was possible this semester and had several weeks in which I was waiting for everything to fall to pieces around me.  It has been a great growing semester through classes, research, and running.  I have (almost) conquered orgo II and the corresponding eternal lab, carried out a research project that I was sure would fall through, scored at the Big Ten meet, run a 10k on the track, and revolutionized my paradigm of how writing does and should function in college.  I now can legitimately identify myself as a researcher, a valued member of the track team, and a big picture thinker.

            As a writer, I have developed more confidence and a new perspective on where I ultimately belong as a writer in my career.  As I discussed in my last post, I hope to use writing as a constant challenge and a link between academia and the public.  Although I briefly considered this concept previously, I have put a lot of thought into the communication gap in the last 14 weeks.  I believe that I will always read and write scientific writing differently as I consider the intended audience and implications of the article.  I hope that I won’t forget the ideas that I have explored in this course and revert back to my hopes of being a introverted lab rat.  I think there is much more potential for me to occupy in the mysterious chasm that currently exists between academia and “real life.”

So 14 weeks later, the same person yet not.  I would say this is the end of  an intriguing journey for closure on the semester, but ultimately it is not even close.  The end of one journey is nothing but the beginning of the next. So here’s to the beginning of a new intriguing journey.