You know you're a science major when...

Shameless admission: I am a complete nerd. I got done with my semester a couple of weeks ago, and I've really enjoyed being home with my family, making music, hanging out, and catching up. But not being in school has been a weird adjustment (and I still haven't adjusted).  I love learning and I always invest a lot of time into my classes, but I would say that this semester has been the most time-consuming one yet (and will probably be the winner until PA school).  I'm so used to studying all the time and having a list that grows two projects longer for every one I check off that now that all of that is finished, I literally don't know what to do with myself.

I have a bunch of books from the library and I have read three already, but I just want to be productive.  Since I'm currently on break, there aren't many pressing tasks. (I do have prep and paperwork for a senior research project that I've been chipping away at, and that's been good.) I actually miss biochemistry. No joke, on Christmas Day while we waited for family to arrive I explained and drew out beta oxidation (how the body breaks down fat) to my mom and grandma, who patiently listened and probably understood nothing once I started talking about acyl-CoA dehydrogenase.

Today someone suggested that I write on my blog, but I couldn't think of anything to say (What? Erin has nothing to say? Is she deathly ill?). Then I remembered a post-in-the-making that I've been adding to for a year or two, and thought this would be the perfect time to share it.

You know you're a science major when...

• You look forward to weekends because you finally have uninterrupted study time

• Your study breaks consist of reading a book or studying flashcards from a different class

• You have ever studied while sitting on the toilet or brushing your teeth

• When you discover some cool obscure fact, you feel the need to inform all your non-science-y friends (for example, pyocyanin is a blue pigment produced by P. aeruginosa and when a wound is infected by these bacteria the pus is blue!)

• It's perfectly normal to talk about bodily functions and blood while eating

• You dream about organic chemistry

• You lay in bed automatically reviewing and reciting even though the test is over

• Every school notebook has lab notes or functional groups doodled on it, regardless of what class it's actually for

• You can't have normal conversations around test time because the only words you can think of no one will understand or care

• You know a lot of Greek letters

• Words like dihydroxyacetone phosphate, glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase, thin layer chromatography, acetylcholine, and SDS-PAGE (sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylimide gel electrophoresis) are everyday words to you

• You use tons of abbreviations

• Autocorrect is annoying because as many times as you try to type NAD, the computer unhelpfully "fixes" it to AND

• Normal symbols like [ ] or ∆ now have different meanings

• You think certain molds are cute and stuffed E. coli or salmonella are awesome

• When you eat, you think about amylase and when you're sick, you get mad at prostaglandins

• The dumbest things in lab become hilarious because it's better than crying

• You study until you can't study anymore, and then you keep studying

• Your classmates become your family

• Even when things get frustrating or seem impossible, you press on because you love it and you know it'll be worth it in the end.