I’m leaving OU with a dual degree (as opposed to a double major, which is a single degree with two concentrations), which is two wholly separate degrees: a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology, summa cum laude, and a Bachelor of Science, with distinction. I also completed minors in French, Computer Science, and the History of Science. It took two hundred and eleven credit hours and five years to get through it all, but it’s over and done.

…Until I leave in August for Illinois to spend another seven years getting two MORE degrees.

I’ll always have good memories of my time at OU. I met a ton of people, did so many new things, and grew up a lot. I lived in Housing, worked for Housing, and met the girl of my dreams thanks to Housing. I took classes from good professors, bad professors, and sit-in-class-and-play-video-games-they’re-so-bad professors. But mostly, I had fun.

Thanks for all the fun.

Oops. Yes they did.

Apparently she was feeding a runty squirrel when a big mean fat squirrel decided that it deserved the food more than the itty bitty one. So it gave the little one a smack and hit it hard enough to knock it into her face, where it scrabbled around a little bit before escaping. Don’t feed the squirrels!

34 essays and a term paper later, I guess I survived. I really did enjoy the discussion that went on during class, most of it being so topical to my future career plans as a physician… it was just a lot more writing than I’ve ever really had to do for any sort of class. I guess that should be expected from an Honors course.

Sidenote: our Honors curricula requires that you take a certain number of courses that are designated “Honors”, from any discipline you like. Most of these courses are smaller than their corresponding non-Honors section, and most are GenEds (Music, Art, English, etc.) Having come into the University with credit for so many of my core class requirements, most of the Honors offerings simply weren’t available to me. I came into this semester realizing I needed one more class. What were my two choices? Honors Meteorology, or Honors Accounting! I picked Accounting simply because it sounded easier, but boy what a waste of a class that does nothing to prepare me for much of the real world.

Today in Lit/Med, the professor held up a small print of a painting that he had gotten at the Shanghai Museum while he was presenting at a conference in China. He decided that we should have a vote to decide “who among your peers has taught you the most while in this class” this semester. We passed around papers to ballot, and the top three stepped out of the room “until the white smoke signalled that the voters had decided.” I happened to be one of those three, along with a professional writing major and an English major. Together we represented the Literature and the Medicine, surely. When we came back in, I found that I had won this little prize! Rather flattering.

• Argentometric Chloride Analysis
• Iron Ore Assay
• Antacid Strength Measurement
• Mercurimetric Blood Chloride Analysis
• Calculation of Water Hardness
• Bleaching Power Assay
• Detergent Phosphates Measurement

I only got the first and the last right on the first try. And in this lab, if you aren’t extremely accurate, you fail. There’s very little difference— tenths of a percent— between a 0 and a 100. My lab skills run more towards bacteria, not mixing chemicals until you get just the right color (some of the color changes are pretty hard to discern accurately, and if your samples are different shades of wine rosé red… yeah.

There’s not enough time to do every experiment twice, and if you’re not careful there’s not enough time to do ANY experiment twice, so you have to be efficient. I got done with the seven experiments at the end of June… but that still wouldn’t give me enough time to redo five. So I took advantage of the fact that you can keep turning in results until you get the right answer. I would select some data points but not others, massage my standards, and even average my answers with the guy’s next to me (each sample is different, you can’t just put someone else’s number in for yours). This got me through two more experiments. I had to redo a couple, and thankfully got better grades the second try. And one of them, I just don’t have any idea how to do it better. So even though I’ll end up with a middling B in the lab, the class is so easy that it balances out. It seems silly now that I almost forewent getting a Chemistry major because I was afraid to take this class!

I’ve gotten lots of time to spend with Caitlin these past few weeks, which has easily been the best part of the summer. Friends are awesome. She comes with Val and me now to lift weights, so we can all get buff together

I’m not taking summer school because I need to catch up or anything, just in case you were suspicious. The opposite is actually true; I had run out of courses to take in the fall. So why am I taking this one out of my limited remaining pool? It goes like this. Because I knew I was staying an extra year, I needed to take something in the fall and spring (12 hours worth to be enrolled full-time). I asked my advisor, Dr. Nagle, what I could do to stretch things out a bit. He found that because my current degree program is a research-oriented Microbiology set, it already included almost every course needed to complete a Chemistry degree as well. So with just three more courses, I’d graduate with two degrees and my three minors (French, Computer Science, and the History of Science).

The RA job in the summer takes barely any of my time. I am in the office once a week, from 2:30-12:00, and that’s it. It doesn’t pay a ton, but it keeps me from having to find a place to live while I take this class, and it gives me lots of meal points to spend on tasty things.

(I’m typing this on Sam’s computer, which needs a hard drive replacement. So while it’s backing itself up to my iPod, I wrote this. iPods are great data shuttles; their drivers are ubiquitous, they’re compact, and relatively fast over USB2.)

(Also, I have no clue how I ever typed QWERTY. It’s so clunky compared to Colemak. My finger strain has eased a ton since switching. Check it out. I retain most of my QWERTY accuracy, but little QWERTY speed unfortunately; down to about 40-50 WPM vs. my old 90-100. I type about 120 WPM in Colemak though.)

My grad student mentioned that we needed some control samples from healthy individuals to compare to the current samples. At first I started thinking about where to order said material… but then I realized: the tone of her voice was unmistakable.

I guess I’m providing some samples.

• Body fat dropped by over 2%
• Oxygen utilization effectiveness increased by over 15%
• Resting heart rate dropped by 15 bpm
• Muscle mass increased by over five pounds
• Wrist got shaved… again

This really was the most life-changing thing I did this year, easily. Exercising was never really a burden because of the time or effort committment; instead, it was just because I really didn’t know what I should be doing to exercise effectively. Now I know!

Celsius Exercise Plan

Monday, Wednesday, Friday: Cardio training. 35 (increase to 45 by Week 20) minutes at 65-75 (increase to 70-80) percent of heart rate reserve.

Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday: Strength training. 8-10 reps of 75% of the 1-rep max for the following:

• Bench Press
• Military Press or Overhead Press
• Lat Pulldowns
• Leg Press or Squats
• Prone Leg Curls
• Bicep Curls
• Tricep Pushdowns
• Sit-Ups
• Back Extensions

Spreading the Lurve

About halfway through my training, I started going to the gym with two of my RA friends, Val and Becky Jo. I would work out earlier in the day at the training facility, and then go to the student gym with them later to take them through the same sort of exercises I did. Now that the study is over, they’ll be my workout buddies!

My major is in Microbiology, with the “Professional” option (higher requirements, but looks better when applying for research programs). Because I came in with so many hours, I could have graduated in two-and-a-half years. Instead, I added several minors in different areas of study: French, Computer Science, Chemistry, and the History of Science. (Minors have to be attached to a major degree; they don’t stand on their own. They’re a way of telling future employers / grad schools “Hey, I am a well-rounded and multifaceted individual.”)

Even with all the minors added and such, I was still struggling to look for classes to take next semester. It’s my fifth year, and all of OU’s degree programs are designed to graduate you in four years with one major and no minors (about 120 hours of credit). After this semester, I’ll be pushing 180 hours.

When I met with my advisor, I mentioned that I was completely running out of courses to take. He looked at my degree sheet for a little bit and then pulled some papers out of his filing cabinet. “Let me suggest something: why don’t you take these three classes… and get another major!” Wow! It was about 10 hours of extra work to turn my Chemistry minor into a full-fledged Biochemistry major. I can take one of the courses this summer, and then one each in fall and spring. However, after a little more looking, one of the courses conflicted with my preexisting Microbiology major. So we switched it to a straight Chemistry major, which is actually slightly easier on my schedule.

I went to the College of Arts & Sciences to let them know what I planned to do. My A&S advisor informed me that I actually couldn’t double major in Microbiology and Chemistry because I had too many hours. The solution? Earn a dual degree instead. It’s actually cooler; instead of getting a “B.S. in Microbiology and Chemistry”, I get two separate diplomas, and two Bachelor’s degrees!

I figure this is my reward for starting college early and coming in with so many hours. Instead of using that advantage to graduate early, I’m using it to do as much as I can during the short time here. Not too much time left at OU…

Mrs. Williford,

My name is Seth Kinast and I attended the spring training session for College Volunteers. I signed up for the Friday spot from 3-6 p.m., and went in for the first time this past Friday, the 22nd of February. I am writing because of the extremely poor experience I had, in hopes that you can either provide a solution, or assist me in switching my volunteer time to another slot.

I arrived for my 3 p.m. shift at about 2:40 p.m. and checked in at the front desk. I made my way to the ED and talked to one of the ladies at the front ED desk, explaining that I was there for the College Volunteer program. She went and found “Robbie”, who was apparently the person in charge of showing the volunteers around.

I explained to Robbie that I was here for the 3-6 shift but was a little early to make sure I found where I was supposed to be in time. The first thing he said to me was “Well I guess you’re just a kiss-a**, huh?” I am unsure why arriving early would ever be viewed negatively, but overlooked this remark as perhaps just being Robbie’s personality. However, over the next hour or so, he made several more offensive remarks, including what happened to him when he smoked marijuana “I just wanna f***, eat, and sleep” and asking if I had a “hot sister” that he could get to know. I do not consider these comments to be representative of a professional staff member.

I could have overlooked the commentary, however, had the rest of my shift been rewarding. Soon after I arrived, Robbie took me into a back utility room where two ED techs were sanitizing equipment. One of the techs was training the other and both were obviously busy. Robbie left me with the techs– “maybe you can learn something”– but the techs had little time to do anything but make polite conversation. (No foul; they were doing their jobs.) The techs left for another floor and suggested that I wait behind in the ED. I went to the break room to find Robbie eating cherry cobbler and ice cream. I asked him “who can you put me with now?” since the techs were gone. “Oh, no one,” he responded. He kept talking for a couple more minutes to one of the nurses and then left the ED completely. He did not tell me where he went nor when he would return. I stood around awkwardly for awhile, trying to stay out of the way; I didn’t want to start bothering nurses or others who were obviously busy and had jobs to do. After Robbie did not return, I gave up and left in frustration. This was about 4:45 p.m.

My experience in the ED left me feeling not only unneeded, but unwelcome in general. I do not look forward to returning this Friday if I will simply be ignored again. Please let me know if I’ve perhaps just hit a bad shift of downtime, where college volunteers are not needed; I would be happy to move to another shift. Alternatively, please let me know if the problem I am having can be resolved. In any case, I would request that you let me know as soon as possible what can be done. I have already invested considerable time, money, and effort in becoming a College Volunteer for NRHS– I sincerely hope that something can be done so both NRHS and myself can benefit from my time spent in the ED, but am willing to start looking for an alternative volunteering job if the situation is unlikely to change.

You can contact me at «redacted» or by e-mail at «redacted». Thank you very much for your time and attention.

Seth Kinast

Sigh.