Yea, a friend would lend you an umbrella in the rain..

but a true friend would take yours and say run ***** run."

--Unknown

I cannot believe that yesterday marked the end of my Discovery Day career here at Benedictine. In my four years here, I worked on 3 projects for oral presentation and 2 for a poster presentation. I will have to say I am quite happy that yesterday is over--it took of preparation, late nights, and energy, not to mention the anticipation, but I soon realized that I was sad as well when I thought about not being here next year to present. Discovery Day really is an awesome opportunity. Professors and students work side by side to conduct research, collaborate ideas, and generate a presentation--it is certainly a learning experience and despite all the headaches research can cause, it's been a blast. My major presentation this year was The Effects of High Arousal Words on Extraverts' Perceived Happiness. In 10 very intense weeks Erin and I managed to come up with the study, get permission from the IRB, conduct the study, and run the analyses. Yes, INTENSE and CRAZY are the words for us during those 10 weeks. The next step...having it ready to submit for publication in a journal--hopefully in June. This means we have some more intense work, writing, and revising ahead of us. However, it will all be worth it if we can get it published. Dr. Adam Buhman-Wiggs was our faculty advisor---we have had lots of bonding time lately with our long hours (haha), but the three of us managed to keep laughin. My two posters this year were: A Study of Aquatic Systems in the Amazon (06-07) and Mammalian Biodiversity of the Peruvian Amazon. The first one is the one I concentrated on. Those of us who traveled to the Amazon over Christmas all pitched in to help each other with our projects. Jenn Brown and I were the main presenters and authors for the Aquatics poster---we just helped with a bit of research on the other. Jenn and I studied the water of the Amazon. We wanted to see the variety of the fish species there, so we set gill nets and also went fishing and took pictures of all the fish we caught. Then we brought the pictures back and identified the fish. We also tested the river water in various places--we tested Turbidity, Ph, Conductivity, etc. as well as bringing back some of the water to culture for bacteria. It was quite interesting--its hard to believe all those weeks of work are over in one day!

People keep asking me "aren't you ready to be done with all of this work?" To a degree, yes, of course I am. I will, however, say that I am most sad about my upcoming graduation. I won't necessairly miss the all nighters, but I'll miss the friendships and the laughter that they brought. I have fond memories of pulling all night or nearly all nighters in Westerman (the Science building) working on Organic Chemistry mechanisms---it wasn't the mechanisms that brought me the memories, it is the friends that I made, the fun that we had to keep each other going, and the memories that were created that make those times priceless.

How does one begin to say 'goodbye' to a place they have come to call HOME. A place where, even with its frustrations, has brought 4 of the best years of your life?? I am being smacked in the face more and more with that question with every passing day. Only about 6 weeks until I walk across that stage and leave Kansas for the last time as a Raven. I am so excited for what lies ahead, especially since I have no idea what that is, but it will be most difficult to leave this place and, even more so, the people. On the happy side, there is so much left to look forward to before that time comes. Spring Formal is this Saturday and I am SOOOO excited for the fun it will hold. I cannot wait to dance the night away with some of my nearest and dearest! Me & the other members of the Senior STUGO are working on planning an awesome Senior week---we plan to go out with a bang!!

Picture: I put a collage of pictures of Amber and me together. She is certainly one of my nearest and dearest--since our freshman year. She's the ARK & I am the Pasconi. We can both be crazy & weird and we laugh A LOT. The quote is also fitting for us. I found it somewhere the other day and we both agreed---that is something we would totally do to the other--