I feel betrayed. Am I intimidating or something? I don't feel like elaborating. This is going private. I feel like I can't trust people no mo.
Woooooo! Last night was the shitttt! I was hoping I would have taken my friend Yogi's advice and woke up not remembering stuff that happened and find out in pictures. That's always exciting. But I remembered. Oh well! It was a blast for sure! I had my absolute best friends there and I couldn't have asked for a better birthday ever. I'm so happy that I have them. I don't know what I would do without each single one. Granted, a few of them couldn't make it, which sucked but they both emailed me and apologized sincerely and their reasons weren't bullshit. I still love them fa sho!
“A lot of people have gone further than they thought they could because someone else thought they could.” –Unknown
Although the author of that quote is unknown, it surely could have been any of the students who work in this professor’s lab. It’s probably no big surprise as to what professor is being awarded the Faculty Mentor award since I’m standing up here so to Dr. Bardgett, congratulations.
As the thoughts finally came to me for this speech this morning, it occurred to me how much this award says about him as a mentor. Yes, I’m probably biased, but I think NKU’s psychology department is paramount to all psychology departments everywhere. And for one professor to stand out from a department like that should tell you that this professor and mentor is one of the best. He is able to take whatever seems appealing to a student about the science of psychology, and turn it into a passion. He is able to use his passion for the science and expand it so that those working under him can possibly be as prestigious as him one day. He’s able to share his knowledge and passion so that those working under him can someday hopefully be as great of a mentor as he is to us. It’s not often that people come across mentors like this. And for all of us in his lab, we are extremely lucky.
I can’t even express how hard it was to keep the excitement of Dr. Bardgett winning this award secret. I was absolutely thrilled when I found out because for all that he does for us, we are finally able to say “thank you” in some way other than expressing it verbally. For example on Thursday, I went to the University of Louisville to present research for their neuroscience day. After being awarded third place and winning $100 I immediately called him. He said, “Congratulations! You know I get $75 of that, right?” I laughed but had to hold the words back. So badly I wanted to tell him he’d be getting some form of recognition soon and some form of a huge “thank you so incredibly much for all you do.”
Two years ago he took accepted me into his lab. Two years ago I’d taken chemistry and biology and just got by. I had not yet taken my 210s, had failed at my first attempt at statistics 205, and had a GPA of 1.864. For the record, only in a room full of psychologists would I feel comfortable enough to disclose that information. And I won’t get offended if none of you raise your hands, but how many of you professors and students, if you were in Dr. Bardgett’s position, would have allowed a student like me to do research for you? Now I want everyone to close their eyes. I hope this doesn’t backfire on me here but raise your hands if any of you would ever second-guess anything Dr. Bardgett has done pertaining to research. Keep your hands up if you raised them. Everyone open your eyes and look around. But look at the transformations he initiates in his students. Where does one start in thanking a person like Dr. Bardgett?!? A mentor like this should never go unrecognized or unthanked. Before I read the nomination letter for Dr. Bardgett, I’m going to read another quote that applies to him. This quote reminded me of what he does for the science of psychology now, and how this one mentor has potentially shaped the future of it for at least the students in his lab.
“What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us. What we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal”. -Albert Pine
Nomination Letter:
I feel like suggesting Dr. Bardgett for this award would only match his efforts if he won it every single day for the rest of his career. In a university where he’s widely known for his accomplished research projects and publications, this professor deserves nothing less and everything more. Us students in his lab work with him more closely than students he sees in class, but I feel confident enough to speak for all of his past, present, and future students and research assistants when I say this: Dr. Bardgett always makes the learning fun. He always goes out of his way to aid students in their understanding of difficult material. And, he sees potential in his students in a way that allows his students to feel reassured and more confident about their own potential.
To express that Dr. Bardgett deserves this award is a certainty. To be awarded with this might be a small thing. But I hope it means a lot. For every duty we carry out in the lab, we do it willingly. We do it because these duties are tiny compared to the big picture of what he helps us accomplish. So for all the prestigious letters of recommendation, the awards you help us attain, and for noticing our potential even when we may not have seen it in ourselves, you deserve this more than anyone.
"Think of yourself as on the threshold of unparalleled success. A whole clear, glorious life lies before you. Achieve! Achieve!" -Andrew Carnegie
To quote myself, or to use a metaphor rather, we had an earthquake last night. Yeah, in Kentucky. What the fuck, is right. It woke me up too because the windows were rattling. They are quite old. Anyways, I was walking today in the beautiful weather, getting out of school and walking to my car, when I realized how metaphoric the situation was. There was an earthquake, and then the next day the weather was absolutely amazing. Don't worry, I know that earthquakes don't affect the weather as much as a hurricane would (at least I don't think?), but it just seemed serendipitous to me. It seemed a lot like those "To see a rainbow, you have to put up with the rain" type of quotes.
But back to my form of journaling: blogging. Although it's weird I collect journals. I don't even write in them. I find typing a lot more efficient. My fingers type a lot faster than they write. That's a certainty. Man, I digress a bit too much. This is why I type. My thoughts are way too rapid for me to express them with a pen.
Ok. The week started out rough. There was the girl who lied to us all and deceived us so gracefully. There were the comments made to me at group about my recent appearances. However, and to source the first paragraph, the week got amazingly so much better. I ended up winning a $75 book grant for next semester's books, a $100 prize for the third place Excellence in Neuroscience Research award that University of Louisville's Neuroscience Day, and am now the webmaster for our Psi Chi/Psychology Club. Also, I nominated the faculty mentor with whom I've been doing research for four semester now for the Faculty Mentor Award (I work with another professor too, but only for this semester thus far). He ended up winning. :) That makes me so happy because he deserves it for all the effort he puts into his students' work. One of the other women in our lab nominated him as well and those were the only nominations for the award in total so he would have won regardless. However, I think that says a lot about the amount of time he spends on his students'/his research compared to the other faculty members. Don't get me wrong, the other faculty members are really amazing and fantastic (with the exception of one), but his effort is absolutely paramount, I think, to the rest of the faculty members when it comes to helping his students excel.
It was funny because I called him after I won that award and he jokingly said, "You know I get $75 of that prize money, right?" We both laughed. Then he told me that another one of the professors wanted to talk to me and it was Dr. Hogan, expectedly! He jokingly said, "And you know I get $25 of that, right" after I told him what I'd won. Haha. That man is such a riot. They both are. I love our professors. But I wanted to tell Dr. Bardgett (my faculty mentor) so badly that he won, and that he would be getting his reward for all of his efforts soon. But I couldn't! I have to keep my mouth shut until Sunday when he will be presented with the award!!! So frustrating! But then again, it'll just make the award even better when he receives it. So to end it, his award will be better than $75. To him, I hope it's much better and incomparable to the award he helped me accomplish on Thursday. :) He deserves at least that.
"Don't worry about people from your past there is a reason they didn't make it to your future."
This was sent to an ex-friend of mine from an eating disorder group I was in. I knew she was on Facebook so I'd friend requested her several times each time to get declined. I wrote her this and now I'm glad she declined. It made me realize something very important:
"I've been thinking about the friend requests & I wanted to
apologize for sending them. Although, I hope things are going well for
you, you've allowed me to notice that some people can't stop seeing the
bad in other people. And if those people don't want to be my friends,
that's better for me. I don't need those negative people in my life
anyways. And it confuses me why someone still looks so heavily at
negative things that happened in the past when two played a similar
game. But it's good to realize that people like you aren't meant for my
life and that's for the best. I wish it wouldn't have taken so long to
see the negative impact you had on my life, but at least now I realize.
So, I apologize for the friend requests. I don't know why I thought you'd changed for the better."
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