Well, on this journey of self discovery and improvement, I’m realizing so many things. Things I’ve sort of hidden away and moved on from. But, since I’m discovering all this stuff… I figured I’d share it with all of you… I know… very weird, right?
So, If any of you remember back in one of my old blogs I explained that I originally went to college for Pre-Med. I loved Biology and started taking college classes when I was 15. I wanted to have a career in Genetics. It was the 80’s and gene splicing was new and exciting… and I wanted to be part of it!
When I was still in high school, I was asked to participate in a gene splicing experiment with my College Professor. I was 15 and working with a Professor… hoping to create a double recessive gene fruit fly. Well… long story short…the dishes became cross contaminated and we lost our control group… So experiment failed and I turned 16.
Yes… I was kinda the Amy character on The Big Bang Theory… but with a normal and very cute boyfriend!
So, the college story… remember when I walked into a Senior level 400’s Genetics class on my first day of college. Well let me tell you the real story. I walked in wearing a (1988 decade appropriate) mini-skirt and matching off the shoulder sweater. I sat down behind four much older male students… well into their 20’s. Who thought they were oh-so-brilliant, who laughed at me and said, “Hey baby, I think you’re in the wrong place.”
I wish I had been as strong as I am now… and told them I was there there to kick them in their pathetic, non-theoretical, biologically disproportional, geographically in my space… Neurological Balls!
But I didn’t. I chickened out and changed majors.
Interestingly enough, if I had followed my passion of science and research… I might have been able to cure my own F’ng Brain Cancer.
Now… Present Day… I recently went to present Yale Brain Tumor Center with a check for $25,000 to continue the research they are doing. As special guests, the Board Members of the CT Brain Tumor Alliance got a tour of a private exhibit of the “Father of Neuro-Biology.” They had shelves and shelves of 150 year old brains preserved in jars.
Each Brain had a tumor in it. I went down each row reading names that I only know too well. Glioblastoma, Astrocytoma, etc… I saw every brain and every tumor. And I remembered how I used to dissect brains all the time. We’d put them in metal trays and dissect each one.
If I was dissecting one of these brains, I would have started with the different lobes… and when I finally got to the tumor… I’d extract it and pin it down onto the black wax floor of the tray. I’d cut it open and look at it with such curiosity.
But being in that Yale “VIP” room… I was surrounded by brains… and all I could see were the old black and white photos that were on the walls next to each jar. They were the patients. The subjects of the experiments that were being done to them.
Sometimes I wonder if I’ll be a photo on a wall somewhere next to my brain. And a young and curious girl will dissect it… and later look at my photo…
I’m so glad we are now really pushing the sciences…and especially women in the sciences.
But just in case all they do is stare at your tits… tell those assholes, “Just watch me cure Brain Cancer!”
Love,
Tra