Brain Fuzz

For some reason this morning, my mind floated back to college days. Back then I spent time in the laboratory sequencing DNA, experimenting with frogs' nervous systems, breeding families of fruit flies and identifying parasitic organisms.

Life got even more exciting once I was a graduate student and I was in charge of some of these labs as a teaching assistant. Back then, I didn't know how to say, "I don't know the answer to that question. I'll look it up and get back to you." I've only learned that skill, by necessity, since my kids started asking questions. So, when a Zoology 204 (Invertebrate and Vertebrate Strategies) student would ask me a question about the squid they were dissecting, it was my cue to think of a feasible answer. I thought I was pretty smart and most if not all the students I "taught" seemed to believe these "answers." Sorry guys! I guess I can't make amends for that now.

Looking back, I think I most enjoyed being a TA for the Biology 100 class. Dr. Bradshaw, who taught this non-major biology class, was a most dreaded professor. His lectures stretched my thinking more than my Biology 200 (and beyond) professors had done. The section that most stands out in my mind is "Evolution." Imagine, if you will, a lecture hall filled with 400-500 Mormon freshmen and sophomores being introduced in a rigorous way to the theory of Evolution (we talked both about the general term and evidence for the evolution of man). I don't think they expected this at BYU. The question and answer section of the class were more like a debate (Jodi, maybe you remember this?). The papers that were required were usually one of two types. I can't remember what the exact assignment was, but the responses were amazingly (a) or (b). Either students (a) threw back their heads and bawled about how mankind didn't come from a fish, a monkey, pond scum, an amoeba etc., OR (b) they methodically and thoughtfully considered ideas that had been placed before them, sometimes for the first time and sometimes not. I can only guess that this is a reflection of their parents own response to the subject. Sadly, many of the first type did not answer the requirements of the assignment. I think this was due to their over-anxiety on the subject which produced an emotionally driven product.

I remember one fellow TA of that Biology class. Funny, I can't remember her name, but I can picture her face. One day she came into the lab with a cotton ball taped to her arm. She saw some of us noticing this and pulled it off letting us know that she had had some blood work done that day. It came out in the next few hours or days that she had actually had a pregnancy test and it was positive. So, naturally, we were happy for her.

Fast forward a couple of years. I still didn't have any kids and was blissfully going back and forth to school to my graduate studies and even seeing a wide open future of doctorate work ahead, started checking out my options where Joseph first applied for his doctoral work. I ran into this old friend of mine. I can't remember if she had quit school when her baby was born; I'm thinking she did. She told me a little about her new life where "Barney" (the purple dinosaur) was king. She didn't feel like her brain was being used like it could be living a life of "Barney is a dinosaur." I couldn't relate. I barely knew who Barney was at the time.

Well, I'm here to tell you folks, that my life has changed since that day. I joined the throngs of Barney-watchers. Lost my brain to the inevitable fuzz that takes over when you succumb to the real life of a stay-at-home-mom, beyond the walls of the university. However, that is not how the story ends.

We are offered so much more these days! I am kowtowing to the world of Nick Jr. Colorful, bright and creative are the words to describe Backyardigans and Wonderpets. Rusty synapses begone and long overgrown nerve pathways become distinguishable. My intellect is emerging from the haze!

Note: I guess you might go so far as to say that children's programming has evolved. (sharp intake of air!)