Reading break

A person can only read for so long at one time, so I'll take this short break to share a story.

I turned the first paper in yesterday. I took advantage of technology, changed my Word document into a PDF and emailed it to the two professors. This paper is for the independent study course I did with my mentor, Mark, so he is one of the profs reading it.

He wrote back and asked for the memo that gave the grading instructions. I sent it, apologizing and telling him I thought I had already sent it to him.

Then I went to lunch.

Checked email when I got back from lunch and the first one was from him, simply stating, "It looks familiar."

By this time I had forgotten about the email exchange about the memo. When I write a paper, I am very careful not to plaigerize, as that is not appropriate and can get me into trouble and even kicked out of school. And even though I do my best not to, I am for some reason always nervous about it when I turn in a paper. So when I read that email, having forgotten about the memo, I assumed he meant my paper sounded very familiar, as if suggesting that I plaigerized, or that it looked too much like what he has read before. This was a review article by the way, a summary of research in this topic (the role of ER stress in diabetes).

So, my heart started pounding, and I started to think of how in the world was I going to handle this accusation. I knocked on his door, entered and asked, "What do you mean it sounds familiar?" I can't find the words to describe the type of inflection I used. Anyway, he said, "The memo looks familiar. I think I remember reading it before."

But by this time I couldn't just say okay and turn around and leave. He knew what I was asking. "Oh, you thought I meant plaigerism."

And then nothing. Not a smile, not a laugh, just a blank look. Great! Now he's going to go through my paper with a fine tooth comb. He shouldn't find anything, but I'm still nervous.

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In other news, I won a Pyrex measuring cup today. I already have one, but it was still cool to win.

Also, I found blogs from two other college friends. If you know Ryan Schasteen or Chris and Beth Flores, their blogs are now linked to the right. Ryan got married in July and lives in Wyoming, and Chris and Beth have two daughters in Oregon.

Back to reading... I guess.