During this spring break I had the chance to go to the Grand Canyon. I never thought how amazing it would be to hike this canyon but the experience was mind blowing. While I was hiking I stopped two or three times to listen, like the exercise we did in class. It was a great experience, beautiful! I couldn't believe how right Ishmael was. I never realized that his idea that the human race is so insignificant in the natural world was so true. I felt so tiny going down the canyon and looking out into the wide open space. This was an experience I hope to repeat many many times in the future and I think everyone should visit. During my hike I saw people on the side of the path that were volunteering to keep the path groomed for visitors. Maybe there is hope for the taker culture! If we can protect this beautiful landmark then that proves that there are still people who care about preserving our environment.

Ishmael got me thinking about my choice to become a doctor. I have always wanted to do it not because of the money but because I truly have a desire to help people. Sometimes I have doubts though because the process involves many many many years of schooling. I hope that I will not skew from my ultimate goal of having my own practice and maybe opening up a nonprofit. If nothing else I would love to volunteer with Doctor´s Without Borders. I have talked to many surgeons who wanted to initially do the same thing I want to, help people, but the cost of medical school is so expensive that make it hard not to specialize in an area that makes more money.
Yesterday I was reading a blog by Patch Adams, a doctor who has been an inspiration to me. He is known for being a clown because his care involves loving people and making them laugh, not just treating them like another disease to be cured. If you haven´t seen the movie Patch Adams I highly recommend renting it, even if you´re not into medicine it´s still a very inspiring story.
Here is one of his blogs that I though pertained a lot to Ishmael, even though he gives some personal statements about politics as well.
http://www.patchadams.org/what-does-it-mean

Today in my Microbiology class my teacher was discussing a little bit about a science conference he attended last week. At this event there were many people dedicated to a variety of scientific research. One topic that stood out and reminded me of our class discussions was that of populations of the world as well as the damage that humans are doing to the world. One of the scientists gave a lecture about statitcs involving populations around the world and CO2 emission in different countries. Unfortuantely, most statistics must be taken with a grain of salt but he has a website that I thought was pretty neat.
He has statistical charts where you can manually change, choosing your X and Y axis. Let me know if you discover anything interesting. One that I found to be frustrating was the chart, CO2 emission vs. Time since 1820. I have a feeling most of you will not be surprised to find which conutry is at the top of the chart.

The website is gapminder.com

If you click on Load Gap Minder World it will lead you to the chart

Have Fun!

Happy Super Bowl everybody! This morning my friends and family came over bearing tons of super bowl snacks. Being that there were only 6 of us it seemed that, like every year, there was way too much food for us to possibly finish. I had never really thought about this during previous super bowls but this year all I could think about was the novel Ishmael. "The lion that comes across a herd of gazelles doesn´t massacre them, as an enemy would. It kills one, not to satisfy its hatred for gazelles but to satisfy its hunger..." (Quinn, pgs 117-118). Why do we as a taker society feel that we need to overindulge in almost every aspect of our lives? We are having a fairly small get together that lasts about 4 hours, are two  buckets of chicken wings, pizzas, sodas, and never ending bags of chips etc. really necessary in order for us to have a good time? Now that the game is over we still have bowls and bowls of uneaten food, most of which will be going in the trash. In a country where we have an abundant amount of food how is it that there are still people going hungry? Ishmael said, "The rule there [natural community] is: Take what you need, and leave the rest alone" (Quinn, pg 127). When are we going to take this rule to heart...