Sometimes, being used and then abandoned by a close friend you once trusted can be one of the most lonely experiences of your life. Just this summer, I made a decision to stay in San Diego largely based on the promises of her, and I think just about now that friendship is over. I realize that sometimes, friendships fade away because of lack of time, effort, etc. but this one ended rather abruptly with a single phone call. Maybe because both of us had changed so much and it was hard to see eye-to-eye anymore.

The person who is taken advantage of is the stronger one, and if you're in this situation you're the one who can bounce back. It's like the story of the goose who laid golden eggs. Your (former) friend is the farmer who can take as many of your golden eggs as she wants if you keep trusting her. However, she doesn't have the ability to make her own eggs. She still relies on you to make the eggs for her, and at the end of the friendship you are still empowered to care for yourself in the future while she is left with memories of the past.

Monday morning, I took some time to volunteer with the Salk Mobile Science Lab to bring a science education program to a low-income middle school in El Cajon. It was a truly incredible experience and reminded me that working with people was what I was more interested in instead of research. Many of the students there were considered "at-risk" for not graduating, either because of their family background, because of emotional/mental developmental challenges, or both. I had an incredible group of three boys, and we worked on extracting DNA from wheat as well as a pipetting food coloring to create different colors. One kid was really attentive and focused on the project, while another had difficulty with dexterity and thus handling the pipet. My favorite kid had unlimited questions to ask about EVERYTHING we were doing. The teacher even told him to stop asking questions and to just listen. I really wanted to encourage his curiosity, because that's something I lack right now as a college student, and I did my best to answer as many of his questions as possible. I even had a chance to plug college and describe how fun and exciting it was and how it was a worthy goal for them to set for themselves. Wherever I end up in the future, I hope to be doing work that makes a difference.