In primeval and ancient times, when adolescent members of certain tribes reached the threshold of adulthood, they often went on prolonged odysseys where they underwent trial, meditation, maturation and hardships in order to prove themselves worthy to cross over that specific barrier. In more ways than one, my limited time at UT Arlington for the welch program was that odyssey for me. Five exciting drama-filled, unregrettable, and unforgettable weeks. And now, after one long week of enduring a “normal” summer life again (if you can call it that), I realize how much the people and the situations and the enriching experiences that I encountered at Arlington meant to me during my 5 weeks there, and how much I am indebted to all of them for everything:

For friendships formed and sealed within the first few hours; for great Britain and pictionary; for dr. rogers’ endless supply of food; for falling asleep during dr. lovely’s presentation; for nearly choking on dr. schelley’s smoke; for the oreos and coke that saved us the first few days; for the late night movies on anu’s and alex’s computers; for Donnie darko; for cruel intentions; for office space; for red hair dye; for getting lost in target; for reflux reactions; for broken glassware; for the yucky showers; for the awesome mattresses; for the ants that continuously invaded my desk; for anu’s and liberty’s determination to buy me an ant farm; for anu for being the best roommate and for our constant discussions about neil and taylor; for karen’s allergic reactions to wheat and strawberries; for corn tortillas; for peanut butter; for rice krispies treats; for sausage biscuits; for coke and iced tea; for eating cereal without milk;for carbon has 4 bonds; for sculptures and models of dr. rogers with muscles; for going to the gym and attempting to work out; for figuring out how to use all the weight machines; for the constant bombardment of chick flick movies; for wai-ying’s TV; for mafia; for uno; for hodgie-podgie; for having a sleepover in the guys’ extra room with liberty and wai-ying; for liberty turning the AC to full blast when she meant to turn it down; for tuan’s never ending stories about liquid nitrogen and robotic dogs; for tiffany’s perfect ice cream cones; for plotting with tiffany karen tuan alex about pranks; for being stuck in between two pranks; for alex’s soccer ball; for lindsey’s amazing portraits of everyone; for lisa’s lanyards; for THE DRAMA; for wai-ying’s understanding; for liberty’s hilarity; for lindsey’s sweetness; for lisa’s obsession for latino music; for tuan’s speakers; for alex’s habit of overanalyzing; for laughing so hard that we thought we would die; for anu’s hightower friends; for liberty’s Kempner friends; for dr. smith’s patience and intelligence; for maggie’s teaching; for ashley’s keenness and helping me so much on my poster and paper; for kory’s amazing sense of humor and for being someone I could talk to in the lab; for eddie for all of his stories and conversations; for the autoclave; for kory opening the autoclave with one hand when I couldn’t open it with my entire body weight; for CorA and ZntB; for pAJW48; for pAJW49; for pAJW50; for pAJW51; for pAJW52; for pAJW53; for N-terminals and C-terminals; for chimera protein strains; for inhibitors; for zinc, cadmium, nickel, cobalt, cobalt(III)hexamine chloride; for N-min; for luria broth; for spectrophotometers; for magnesium sulfate; for mac computers; for impossible-to-use round mouses; for jammed up networks; for phoA regulons; for lac operators; for glnA; for vectors; for plasmids; for electroporation; for stirring rods; for cuvettes; for 128 arrays of test tubes; for vortexing; for centrifuging; to Bunsen burners; for kory’s setting his arm on fire with a Bunsen burner and not knowing it until eddie told him; for marshmallows; for “just getting my popcorn!”; for pipettes; for incubators; for the one pair of safety goggles; for overfilling the coffee pot and getting an overdose of caffeine; for willingly staying in the lab until 1 am; for dilutions; for calculations; for polymerase chain reactions; for molecular genetics of bacteria; for salmonella enterica serovar typhimurium; for late night movies in the CRB; for “wanna hear a joke?”; for panda house; for Lindsey almost killing the warthogs; for kevin’s jetski; for going to Ray Roberts lake; for liberty for saving my life at the lake; for TOASTED marshmallows; for oreos dipped in salsa; for falling off inflatable rafts; for the pool; for getting suntanned and sunburned! for the first time; for tuan’s obsession with his laptop; for growth assays that worked; for growth assays that didn’t’ work; for the million trials at making N-min; for anu and liberty’s college discussions; for all the malls we went to; for losing tuan at the mall; for ice cream and milk shakes; for ransom hall; for lisa’s and wai-ying’s food supply; for bond from wai-ying; for red hot chili peppers from anu; for linkin park from karen; for phantom planet from liberty; for raving and glowsticks and making target signs; for ketchup from bennigan’s; for alex’s dark chocolate; for chicken fights and getting beaten by tiffany and Kevin; for liberty for my ticket to T3; for splitting steak and ribs with wai-ying; for chocolate brownie frapuccinos; for dr. rogers’ issues with parking in garages; for finding nemo; for pingpong and pool; for matt lipscomb; for the resident assistant who woke me up at 3 am; for the fourth of july parade; for air freshener; for eyeliner; for shaving gel; for anu’s laptop; for anu for giving me the idea of doing this; for writing super long emails; for 10 pm curfew; for the band people who invaded the UC; for the fobs; for the apple pie; for frantically wrapping stuff up the last week; for everyone’s wonderful presentations; for those last moments in the lab autoclaving test tubes and talking to kory and eddie, not wanting to leave; for memories kept forever;for dr. rogers, tiffany, karen, anu, liberty, wai-ying, lisa, lindsey, alex, tuan, dr. smith, ashley, maggie, kory, eddie

For all that and much much more and whatever else i forgot to put in,
What else could I possibly ask for?