#these are the only organelles I remember from grade 10 bio

[icemanzek]

Please tell me I’m not the only one who pronounced it like “nucleus” as in like the organelle the whole time :’)

[itsjayyyy]

August 22, 2018 4:56 pm

Today in class we started to get into chapter one, since syllabus day has passed. Of course, we still went slowly, covering biology terms that everyone knew from 9th grade. I wrote down everything she said, even though some of it was basic vocabulary that I would never need to study (like the definiton of an atom). I feel that it’s best to do that, that way when you look back, even if you already know it, you can prepare to see it on an exam, it puts you in the right frame of mind. 

This class today reminded me of my favorite word in the english language: “organelle.” I think it sounds cute and fancy, and its definition is cute too: the tiny organs inside of a cell that work together, just for that one cell. I was talking to heather about it today, and she legitimately did not remember that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell! Unbelievable. 

This class has also reminded me of two former biology teachers that I disliked. The first was my 9th grade bio teacher, Mrs. Dawkins, who stated that she didn’t believe in evolution (but you’re a biology teacher!!!!!), and also that she believed it was okay to beat your children. She and I had a passionate argument about it for an entire class period one day. Obviously, neither of us changed the others’ opinion. The other teacher that I didn’t like was Ms. McLoughlin, or however the hell it was spelled. I don’t know, she was my 4th or 5th grade science teacher. When covering plants, I told her how my mother talks to her plants to help them grow, and she called her crazy. Imagine a grown adult telling a child that her mother was crazy because she cares for living beings. And for the record, talking to plants provides them with carbon dioxide, which they need for respiration. 

My current bio professor talked about what all organisms have in common, such as having DNA as genetic code, and one example she used was homeostasis, being able to sense the environment and react to it. She mentioned plants, too, saying they could sense the environment and feel things. I like her a lot. She has a thick indian accent and is kind of short, and you can tell she really cares about us as students. I feel like that’s what my grandmother would have been like, if she were alive. I feel kind of sad that I only had one conversation with her over the phone when I was like seven or so. She probably couldn’t even understand what I was saying, since I used to talk to fast and didn’t quite have a good pronunciation due to my jaw placement. I wish I had gotten to know her better, but we never had a mutual language, or easy access to communication, plus I was only a kid when she passed.

One of my other classes, composition is filling me with dread. Yeah I like writing, but when I have to show someone else I get nervous. Our first major assignment is a 1,200 word essay about o u r s e l v e s. These people ain’t need to know SHIT about me. One thousand and two hundred words. That’s as long as the longest paper I’ve ever written, and the professor said it as if it were so casual. And at the end of the course, we have to prepare a video essay. Literally throwing up rn. The reason I’m writing this right now is so I can get back into the swing of writing, since this entire course is about “learning about yourself as a writer,” which I guess is better than over-analyzing Elizabeth Bishop’s “The Map.” By the way, in class today I tried looking up the meaning of that stupid poem but the essay of the meaning was written in such pretentious language that I still don’t understand it.

My gov’t professor is lowkey on crack. He’s just so eccentric, all over the place. At one point he told us about how he was in college for law, and then he had a professor he really liked, and the professor told him he should become a teacher too, so he did. He said when he told his mother, she cried in the bathroom for 12 hours and that is literally my parents with me. He’s very much a comedian. 

The new coffee shop on campus has opened, and it’s so fancy. Kinda sucks tho, because in the last few days I’ve realized how much I love just a plain cup of coffee, considering it has about 10 times as much caffeine as a latte. I feel like if I go to this “indie, experimental coffee shop” for just a plain cup of coffee, I’ll be judged. I tried their affogato root beer float, which is root beer, vanilla ice cream, and a shot of espresso on top, and it was actually pretty good (and $7, yikes). I want to try this one drink next, it was espresso with lemonade and sparkling water shaken together. Sounds gross, I’m in.

Today on the way to comp, I bumped into Antoine. We didn’t talk much, just a “hey how’s it going” and then we kept walking. I didn’t tell him I switched majors. Heather was telling me monday how she wanted to hit up anjlie and see how she’s doing and if she wanted to hang, but I don’t think she should. Julia transferred to our college over the summer and we met up once or twice, but honestly? I don’t really see julia as a friend. We knew each other in high school, but we were really only ever friends because we had classes together. We never made a strong bond. I just don’t really want to keep up with her because of that, whereas heather and I have a much closer bond and we have things we can talk about. I feel like that’s probably how anjlie feels about me and heather; we were friends of convenience in high school, but in college there’s no bond. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, that’s just how life is. Now that I’ve felt that with julia, I know how anjlie feels, and I’m not gonna bother her unless she wants to hang.

This semester I really feel like I’m gonna do well. I started using my planner again, and I’m gonna keep on top of everything. And I’m semi-in my major, so I actually care about stuff. Like, today we literally were just going over the building blocks of life but it made me so happy. Like yeah, this is what life is made of. We’re all just a pile of organelles trying to work together to keep us functioning.