You know how some things in life, horrible things, only have to be done once? And you know how good it feels to go through some horrible thing and think, “I’ll never have to do that again!”

Yeah, that’s the way I felt too after taking the GRE. The test is taken on a computer, and from the moment you’re done, it gives you your score. Mine was good enough, and taking it again would really serve no purpose.

Unless of course someone offered me $115 dollars to take it again…

The GRE is completely changing its format. The actual format of the test is different (no analogies, lots of reading — no multiple choice math, use a calculator and type in the correct answer), and the numeric scoring of the test is changing too.

Thus, last week, the dean of graduate office came into a grad class and offered everyone $115 to take the test. They need something to compare the new test against. Comparing their graduate students past GRE scores to the new test should do nicely.

So, this Saturday from 8:30 to 1:30, I’ll be selling my body (or at least mind) for the low price of $25 an hour. It really does feel like intellectual prostitution. Not that I don’t appreciate the money. But I told myself I’d never have to take the GRE again, and I had been blissfully living under the joy of this illusion for some time now.

Shattered dreams are always painful.

In keeping with my tradition of being a well dressed graduate student, for my second day of school, I’m wearing a t-shirt with the following design.

I designed this shirt msyelf in Photoshop (though I scanned the octopus from an invertebrate textbook). The story is a good one. I was taking a 5 week course on marine invertebrates while on Whidbey Island during the summer of 2003. Having exhausted the field biology courses I was interested in taking at Abilene Christian, I opted to take courses through the Au Sable Institute rather than sign up for things like immunology, cancer biology, or other courses on the pre-med (“dark side”) of biology. The Au Sable Institute is a neat place that promotes Christian stewardship of the world around us, and I greatly enjoyed my time there.

During the marine invertebrates course, the professor was talking about cephalopod evolution. Cephalopods are the most advanced of the invertebrates, with some amazing characteristics like relatively large brains, well developed eyes, and for many, the ability to change the color of their skin to match their environments. The professor made a statement something along the lines of “Cephalopods rule, in fact, you could put that on a t-shirt” and went right on with his lecture. I got together some friends and I designed this t-shirt and had it printed, and on the last day of class, everybody wore it underneath a jacket. When he opened his gift and saw his shirt, we all took our jackets off and everybody had a good laugh.

Today is a special day. At the moment this post is published, I should be beginning my first class in grad school. The schedule looks to be set. Evolution, genetics, and evolutionary ecology are on the ticket.

I’ll be sporting the latest styles appropriate for a graduate student. My flying spaghetti monster T-shirt (of which I’m so fond), cargo pants, and chacos.

My wife is doing her first day of student teaching. She’ll do kindergarten for half the semester and 4th grade the other half.

So today, in a very real way, marks a tangible first step for both of our hopes of going into fields we’re passionate about.

Kind of exciting. Kind of scary.

Just a quick note for those that care… I’m headed to graduate school! It was expected, but I finally got my offical acceptance letter yesterday in the mail, and I will be attending San Angelo State starting this spring to pursue a masters degree in biology. My thesis will most likely focus on some aspect of community ecology in birds. I’ll have to do some leveling work the first semester. So far I’ll be taking undergrad classes in genetics, biostatistics, and evolution. I’d like to talk my way out of the evolution class. I feel like Abilene Christian did a good job covering the subject, but alas, you’ll never find a class titled such on an ACU transcript. Oh well. I’m sure I can learn much from it.

I’m quite excited (even if a little scared) about this next phase in my life. A couple of weeks ago, I visited the campus with my wife to meet with the professor I’ll be studying under, Terry Maxwell. It was a delightful visit.

One of the funniest moments came as we (Dr. Maxwell, my wife, and I) were crossing campus to visit the admissions office. There was a dead Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura) on the ground, and Dr. Maxwell picked it up to stick in Angelo State’s freezer, to be prepared later for their natural history collection. He left the bird outside when we visited with the admissions folk, but on the way back to his office, we took a detour through the campus center as he wanted to show it to us. Dead dove in hand, we walked past throngs of students, people in business suits and dresses, and workers getting various end of year festivities setup. He would occasionally point to something, dove in hand. I think my wife was a little surprised and trying not to laugh.

Afterwards, at my request, Dr. Maxwell graciously showed us the natural history collection, a modest but very respectable collection of bird and mammal preserved specimens. (Scientists use these collections for research and teaching). My wife bumped her head on the wall-mounted hyena donated by the San Antonio Zoo when we walked in the door, and she was a little startled at first. I think she enjoyed it, though probably not as much as I did.

Yeah, this is where I belong.