Last spring, I successfully completed all my science lower division course work. This means, this fall I began taking classes that were specific for my major, physiological science, instead of just life science core classes. There are about nine life science majors which all have the same pre-requisite classes. Most students take the first two years to complete the 16 courses. Then it’s time to take classes specific for the major. Even though it’s only been four weeks, I couldn’t be happy with my choice of major!

The first class on my agenda is Systems Anatomy. The class has two two-hour lectures per week, one three hour lab, and one two hour open lab period. We have spent the last couple of lectures learning about the nervous system. Today, we started the circulatory system.

Although lecture is full of information, my favorite part of the class is lab! Getting to lab is an adventure in itself. The lab class room is located on one of the bottom floors of the engineering building, and besides the lab classroom, the rest of the floor appears to be under construction. Plus, lecture is right before it is on the complete opposite end of campus, requiring a full on sprint to make it in time. At UCLA, we get to use human cadavers. They take this pretty seriously- the lab room is locked at all times, we have to show our bruin cards to get into the lab, put all items in cubbies, absolutely no cell phones or pictures, in addition to standard lab procedure of toe-closed shoes, pants and sleeves.

I have spent the last couple of weeks identifying structures on brains. But today, it was time to see an actual heart in lab. I had no idea hearts were that big! And don’t even get me started about the lungs. One of the cool perks of being a Bruin, is we are one of the few schools where undergraduates get to work with humans, according to my professor. Plus, every summer they offer a dissection course, where undergraduate students like me prepare the specimen for the next class. Pretty cool!! I think I know what I’ll be taking this summer.

I know finding the right major can be tough, and even stressful, but hopefully y’all can find a major that you are just as passionate and excited about as I am with phy sci!

GO BRUINS!!

(remember: Thursday night game this week!)