The Double Helix Hoagie

Every time I visit a campus other than BYU, I am struck by how different they look than what I'm used to. I rather think I'd like to go to one of them. One with a really great, really big life science research program. I love BYU, but the more I see of other schools, the more I realize that they have a lot more to offer for what I want anymore.

I'm busy drooling right now over the University of Missouri's complex of biology and agriculture buildings. It probably in part has to do with the beautiful, clean lab with big windows- windows!- that I spent the day in. My lab has no windows.

Also, I'm kind of jealous that they have a cafe in their life science center. They call it the Catalyst Cafe, which is a little silly but still makes me grin, and I ordered a Double Helix Hoagie there for lunch today. It was a really good sandwich, too. It will be kind of hard to go back to the Widstoe, where I normally live.

The farther I delve into Acadmia, the more I realize that there's a whole nother world that most college freshmen are not aware of. This world consists of lifelong scholars and researchers who are funded and sponsored by the University, and it appeals to me in many ways. I want to be a teacher and a researcher so I can keep learning and stretching my whole life.

I'm also a little nervous, though. It seems that so many who choose this path, of continued scholarship and research become narrowed and can't see out of their narrow realm of expertise. They become snobbish and have a hard time seeing the relevance of anything that doesn't relate directly to their research. I want so much to avoid this.

Lifetime quest: To learn as much as possible while avoiding the curse of intellectual snobbery.