A New Kind of “Studying”

Now that the GRE is over, I’ve been focusing on graduate school applications and the next phase of my journey.  That being said, I’ve also been trying to stay busy and do some new things.  Since I’m going to be doing a fair amount of traveling in the next few months, I don’t really have time for a job (oh, darn).  But, I did discover a way to help others and make some money on the side.  Before you get concerned, I’m not selling body parts on the black market, I promise.

Living in San Diego has put me in the center of a biomedical haven and the research opportunities are endless.  So I’ve started to volunteer to be a constant in medical studies. I have decided that I would not take weird test-drugs or do anything potentially harmful to my health.  This week on Monday I’m doing the final screening for a sleep study that I’ll complete in November if I qualify.  Basically I’ll spend four days and nights in the lab, sleeping on a set schedule.  Then one night I’ll have to stay up all night.  Each day I’ll have to do a series of critical thinking puzzles and games and they’ll track how sleep (or lack thereof) affects my abilities.

Tuesday I’ll be performing a series of tests and drills while hooked up to machines to provide the norms for research relating to schizophrenia.  That way they have something to compare to the subjects with that disease whom they are really studying.  And Friday I’m having my brain scanned to be the control group for testing they are doing to study how depression shows in the brain.  All of this should be fun and hopefully helpful to people suffering from these diseases.  And the icing on the cake?  I get paid for all this!  So while I am unemployed and have free time during the day, I’m going to take advantage.  That’s all for now, so enjoy the weekend… and happy second birthday to my niece, Rachel!!