For All Scholars... Young and Old, New and Wise

Welcome to my blog, "Dancing Through Life"! This is my first time "blogging", so please have some patience with me as I discover how to let out my thoughts. :-)
This blog is meant to track my first summer as a Central Michigan University McNair Scholar and will be both academic and personal, and I do hope you enjoy my journey..... Just as much as I hope to enjoy forging my path.

To begin, I am an undergraduate student studying biochemistry at Central Michigan University (CMU) and I am making my dreams come to life! The McNair Scholars Program is providing an epic opportunity: I am completing my research project this summer and receiving graduate school and GRE prep. Although the program is full of many challenges that must be overcome and plenty of hard work, the benefits totally outweigh challenges. This program has led me to know some of the brightest and nicest people at CMU and I feel privileged to call those people my friends now. I feel very secure with them all and I know they will help me or be there to talk to me if I need it, and going above and beyond that, they are facing many/all of the same challenges as I am and totally understand!

McNair has been teaching me to live my life through how I want to feel. That has been a challenge. I never really thought about how I want to feel, except not hurting. So, I have decided on five core feelings that I want to feel and my goal is to live in a way to make myself feel them. My 5 feelings are: happy, relaxed, intelligent, strong and aware. I typically do a good job at remaining happy, but I am normally very stressed out and I am a worry-wart. I am not physically strong and I am not always aware of the world around me or those in it. Part of my summer adventure is going to be focused on building my strength through the use of running and yoga.

I am 1 week into the Summer Research Institute of McNair and have never felt better! I enjoyed a lot of activities with my fellow scholars this last week. I discovered how supportive we all are for each other through a high ropes course and horse back riding, as well as working out and running. I am looking forward to this summer!