Yuji's in Town

I know no one in Oregon believed me, but I really do have a friend who isn't Ty Dan.  He just lives in London, and can't ever come visit me.  Or rather, he couldn't come visit me until this week. That's right, my best pal Yuji came to town, and we've been hanging out ever since.

Well, ok, he's Dan's friend, but he is in town, and that means increasing our social group from 2 to 3. With this 50% addition to the crew, I found a new confidence that I have been lacking ever since my previous friends sent me in to exile when they realized Dan and I were actually similar people. Surely the volleyball girls will think I'm cool now. With our confident threesome, adventures have been happening nearly every day, and I haven't quite had a chance to digest all that has occurred. Just a few things that have happened while Yuji's been here:

We went bowling next to a big black guy named Reggie. 

Now, as soon as I heard we were going to be bowling next to Reggie, I was immediately afraid. I thought "Maybe we should wait for another lane to open. Maybe there's a reason no one is bowling next to him." And this isn't because he's big and black (it's racist of you for thinking that's what I was thinking), no, it was because he was insane. Reggie mumbled to himself a lot, even yelled at us for distracting him. He claimed that we thought it was funny, and bowling was just a game, when in reality his life was on the line. He bowled over 21 games that night we were there and was dripping with more sweat than Jerry Sandusky during his trial. But the worst part about all of it was that he wasn't even very good. Sure, he bowled 150's... but even I bowled a 141. Needless to say, I was unimpressed by Reggie's bowling prowess for how much he talked.

However, our week did not end at Reggie. We've remained busy by playing Extreme Hunter 2™

Going adventure golfing (don't you dare call it mini golf)

And partying at Taylors (at which I got shut down by an extremely overweight girl to dance). Yuji's gotten the full Eugene experience.

After all of this, my graduation ceremony came at the most opportune of times. Now I get to prove to Yuji how cool and popular I am in Eugene. 

At the ceremony for my Human Physiology department, there were some good speeches by faculty, a great speech by an undergraduate, and god awful speech by someone who I'm not going to name. 

But no one really cares about the actual ceremony; everyone just likes the pictures to prove that you were there.

So without further ado, here is the picture recap of the day.

Pre Ceremony

Sitting next to my RA from freshman year

Me and my best friend Yuji. Dan's there too.

He's really smart, I swear

Pics with professors

Pics with friends

Pics with family

Pics of everyones favorite AT

And Yuji getting his honorary diploma holder

The Bolivia Project

The first rule about research is that you do not talk about research. Or maybe that's the first rule of Fight Club... I tend to confuse the two. However, the rules are completely thrown out the window when a national paper, such as the Wall St. Journal, publishes an article about your research to the entire country.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304707604577424493732692180.html?grcc=88888Z0ZhpgeZ0Z0Z0Z0Z0&mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_health


In summary, the article briefly scratches the surface of what's actually happening at the moment, and how much work is being put in to the project. The article interviews our PI (principal investigator), Dr. Rob Roach, who states the basics of what we're looking at. In short, we're sending 24 subjects down to Bolivia to see how the body responds to acclimatization at high altitude, and how well it retains said acclimatization after being de-acclimitized for a certain amount of days.  With multiple schools involved, including CU Denver, CU Colorado Springs, Utah St, The University of Oregon, Brighton, and a school from Switzerland (I believe the University of Geneva), a multitude of ethnicity and personalities entered our lab here at the UofO, all with the common goal to learn more about High Altitude Physiology. 


This is where my inner nerd takes over and gets to talk about how neat of an experience this has been.
Everything, everyone, and (mostly) every subject has been amazing. There is an overwhelming amount of overlap in personalities and ambition between researchers here, and it's important to note that we're not only from different parts of the country, but also from all over the world. 
Personally, I've been extracting muscle, analyzing blood gases, caught subjects who have fainted and vomited, sterilized equipment, and I continue to run left and right (or any direction I'm asked to run) to make sure everything is on track and on schedule. Most importantly, I've been able to learn about everyone's specialties other than just our own, and I've made some great connections in doing so. All of the subjects could easily be considered friends, they're all approximately my age and great people to be around, and it's been difficult to try to distinctly divide the relationship between researcher and peer. 


Of course, there have been downsides to the study too. If many of you were wondering where I've been (as so many of you have been begging me to come out with you), last week was approximately ~100-110 hours in the lab.  This involved coming in between around 7 am, leaving between 9-11 pm, falling asleep, and repeating. I wasn't even able to have one shirtless yogurt sessions with Dan, and that's what usually keeps me motivated to work hard. Did I get to ride my bike? Absolutely not. I think I got one spin in once, and it really gave me a sense of the mental stress I had put on myself during the duration of the study. Also, this job is based on a salary, so I am payed to work 40 hours a week only, regardless of how many actual hours I put in; 30 and 110 hours pays the exact same. 

We officially sent three individual ~600lbs crates out this past week to Bolivia, of which we had to intercept one in Tangent, Oregon because of some stupid customs rule. 

One of the three crates. Fully loaded, it took 6 people to put them together. Once intercepted, only my co-tech and I were there to reassemble. 

As the crates left, so did the project from Eugene, as all other researchers have headed back to their own schools until they reunite in Bolivia. 

Personally, I will not be going to Bolivia, as someone needs to hold down the fort in Eugene while everyone else is gone. I have absolutely no complaints about not going, as my co-lab tech has done a magnificent job in organizing this project and rightfully deserves to go. 

With some down time, I've been able to relax a little bit more these past few days. I plan on being shirtless far more often (preferably with Dan, but I'm open to other suggestions), as well as spending quality time with friends who are graduating in upcoming weeks.

This past week alone, I was able to wish a happy birthday to my oldest friend, Brian Ki, in person. I've also been able to celebrate the completed Doctoral work of one of the grad students I work with. 

Being social for the first time in weeks. This is the 13th time I've been able to wish that guy a happy birthday. Classmates since we were 9 years old.

However, the highlight of the week had to easily have been a text message from Lauren Gross, inviting myself and Dan to a party at her apartment and hit up the bars afterwards. The decision to go was obviously a no brainer for me, as I was willing to throw whatever plans I may have had (probably browsing the internet) out of the window.  However, Dan decided to go to the East Coast and the most inopportune time imaginable, and was unable to attend. Dan laid out very clear instructions for me; don't embarrass myself so badly that the girls on the team associate my failure with him. And I agree, Dan deserves to have the opportunity to screw it up himself. 

Alas, screwing things up was not meant to be, as Lauren came through in the clutch again without a hint of awkwardness. I officially met Kat and Kellie as well, although I've seen them play 20+ times, but they were also super chill. Overall, they were great people to hang out with (the football players weren't too bad either), and I don't think I've ruined anything quite yet. The three players on the team decide it would be hilarious to send Dan a photo of me with them, just to make sure he would know what he was missing out on. I humbly agreed. 

Although extremely pixilated, and somehow it looks like I'm wearing lipstick, this picture shows that  I continued my social streak this week by hanging out with what are possibly the coolest girls at the University of Oregon. 

Oregon Softball: Getting a Sign to Texas

While at the University of Oregon, I've been known to make a sign or two. It allows me to show support, offer words of encouragement, and brings attention to those who truly deserve it (unlike the attention that some of our athletes get).  My original sign simply stated that Liz, #6, was my favorite player on the volleyball team. Not particularly funny, but it was a solid, efficient and clean sign designed to do nothing more than state a fact. Both supportive and encouraging, no sign I've ever made has ever been more true.  Little did I know at the time of that original sign, the fact of Liz being my favorite would not be limited to just the University of Oregon Volleyball Fan Base. No, this knowledge would end up broadening to multiple sports across multiple schools. 




"What do you mean, 'multiple schools?'" You (the one other person aside from Dan reading this) ask.


"Well," I reply, "Let's start with the sign at Stanford."


Dan and I approached Nick via email, requesting an identical replication of my original sign. I was very hesitant to ask him, as at this point it seemed as if I would be creeping on not only Liz, but the entire volleyball team. To make one thing clear, my goal is to support the athletes at the University of Oregon, not to make them feel uncomfortable, which is why I was originally pessimistic about the idea. However, Dan's compelling argument of "It would be funny" eventually had me sold, and the plan was carried out . Nick successfully delivered the exact same sign down at the Stanford Game.

Photograph courtesy of the Volleyball Athletic Trainer (A story for another time)

"And what did you mean when you said 'multiple sports'?" You inquire.
"Stop asking questions," I reply.

A nearly identical situation arose for the Softball Super Regional this past weekend. As luck would have it, the University of Oregon Softball Team (of which Liz is now on) drew the #6 seed in the University of Texas. Dan has strong family ties to the school; at this point it seemed as if God himself were nudging my shoulder to have another sign made. That's the kind of thing God would do... right? Anyways, Dan and I had the exact same idea in that his Sister and Brother-in-law would be able to replicate the sign and show their support. Using his award winning pitch of  "It would be REALLY funny," Dan convinced both Katie and Rich to go to the game; sign included. 


So, without further adieu, here's Rich Lee's report on how the 3rd sign was presented:


Just as we entered the stadium, we walked by the visiting bullpen and saw none other than Liz #21 catching and throwing like a pro. We were caught a little off guard, but decided to improvise and unfurl the poster while we had her in our sights. We didn't get any pictures or video of the encounter, but she definitely saw us and responded favorably, though nothing could sway her from her bullpen catching duties--she had the focus of a champion. We also tried to get the sign on tv, but I don't think we had much of a chance standing in the very top row. We didn't watch the whole game, but saw some homeruns, some bad defense, and some even worse sportsmanship from UT's Taylor #6. I ate a texas-sized corndog and katie had frozen lemonade. A good time was had by all and Liz #21 is now my favorite player too.
Oregon is moving on to the WCWS and I'd like to think that our presence played a small role in their success (0-1 on days we were not in attendance, 2-0 on days we attended).

Attached is a picture of katie holding up our sign outside of the stadium, and a bonus picture of texas fans counting strikeouts at the always unfortunate 3 mark.

Although the syntax is a little different, the sign is definitely recognizable

I really don't think I can one-up this one. One sign, 3 Universities, ranging from Oregon to Texas. My originality hasn't shined, but the effort has definitely has (although all credit to the Mahoney's on this one). The only question is... how can I improve off this for next year?

Also, a big thanks to Rich and Katie for coming through!

Birthday yogurt, ft. Lauren Gross

Let me ask you a rhetorical; how do you give a birthday present to someone who doesn't generally like things? That's a tough one for anyone to answer, yet I was presented with this very scenario for Dan Mahoney's celebration of life. 

To try to answer that question, I first had to recount the things that Dan actually does like. This includes (but is not limited to)

• Riding bicycles
• Fencing
• Monotony 
• Watching Volleyball

Alright, that's the basis of all anyone knows about Dan. So, let's analyze what we're working with.

Riding bikes: I can't give him a present for that. A commuter bike? That's a $500-1000 gift. Necessities like tubes, tires, chain lube and bar tape would just be lame. Bicycle gift conclusion: Lame and unrealistic. 

Fencing: The same situation, things are expensive. The biggest difference between this and the bike is that I don't actually know anything about fencing. Conclusion: Not possible/too easy to screw up.


Monotony: We go to the campus sub shop all the time to get frozen yogurt, and it's a $5 gift. Nothing to change, quick and simple. Conclusion: This is a good casual gift, we're going to have a birthday yogurt.

Now here's where the fun gift idea comes in...

Watching Volleyball: I obviously can't bring a volleyball match to Dan's birthday yogurt, can I? Well, no, but I can bring a volleyball player. The question is, who? I don't know any of them very well on a personal level, and if I ever approach a player I'm not usually able to complete a coherent sentence. Alaina doesn't allow either of us to think, I can't invite her. 4 is chill, and I've talked to her before, but she's not necessarily Dan's favorite player (just a little too much swag).  Hmmm... well... what about Lauren Gross? I've talked to her a total of 2 times in my life, which is 2 times more than I've talked to almost everyone else on the team. She's a personal favorite of mine, Dan's and Jim Moore's. She has also finished her last season with the team, so I could buy her yogurt without worrying about NCAA sanctions. This seems like the best option.

Now something you should realize is that I thought of this months ago, literally in March. I sent Lauren a message on facebook about attending his birthday party yogurt. Miraculously, she agrees (already a major accomplishment!)

March 27th, to be exact

Here's what I didn't account for: Dan and I think identically. Now, my birthday was mere weeks ago, and Dan himself was talking about inviting Liz, JP, or Alaina to my yogurt celebration. The only thing I could think of saying is "Don't do that." How creepy would that look if he invited someone on the team after I invited someone on the team? 

But no... normal me would never tell him to say "Don't do that." Normal me would be excited, and pressure him to actually bring one of the players on the team. This is where my plan becomes elaborate.

First, I have to make sure that Dan becomes too afraid to actually invite anyone on the team. I use the Tobias Method, and straight up confront him about it. Go on, do it, invite someone. We'd both be terrified. Go on. Yeah, I didn't think so.

The Tobias method worked successfully, but that wasn't enough. No, now I had to mess with Dan's mind. 

"Alright," I told Dan, "I'm going to invite Alaina to YOUR birthday yogurt" 

"Ha no you won't. You wouldn't"

"Oh, you're right... but I will invite 15!!! (Lauren)"

"No you won't"

"You're right, I'm too much of a coward"

Now it's time to not only make him think, but also truly believe that I was a terrible liar. As luck would have it, I found out that Liz, #6, was playing on the softball team before he did. I put on this ridiculous charade of "I have a secret, and I'm not going to tell you."

Then I let it slip that "It might involve a girl on the team playing another sport," which bled in to "FINE LIZ IS PLAYING SOFTBALL"

"Man," Dan replied, "You're really bad at keeping secrets." Ha. Sold it like a pot dealer to Cliff Harris.

After a few more days of REALLY taunting him (without him actually knowing that's what I was doing), finally the day comes where we get yogurt.

After a brief miscommunication, I place Lauren inside the Campus Sub Shop, where I grab unsuspecting Dan and act like it's any normal evening yogurt. As we enter the door, I head straight to the yogurt and let the surprise happen for itself. I could not see, but only hear Dan's immediate smirk-turned-laugh-turned-panicked  "OH GOD I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO SAY."

Dan's first distinguishable words were "You didn't..."

To which I replied "Did what?"

"You..."

"OH! Dan, let me introduce you to Lauren" 

From there on we had a conversation as we normally do when we get yogurt... only this time we actually talked about volleyball more than average. We got some good knowledge about the team that we'd always been curious about, but too shy to ever ask. In return, I found it only fitting that we spilled a few of our own (Including the one about JP being JP, and me still playing my original 1988 gameboy pokemon). Overall it was a successful evening, and we were far less shy and awkward than I'd previously anticipated. All thanks to the smooth talking and willingness of Lauren Gross.

The worst $5 I've ever spent. Ever.

Just like any other workday, Dan sends me a chat message informing me of a Student Athlete Talent Show taking place in the evening. A talent show, you say? Sounds moderately intriguing. I imagine Softball Players playing the piano, Basketball players juggling, some crappy stand up comedy, Alaina being pretty (that's a talent, right?)... sounds like something I could kill two hours with. Alright Dan, after your compelling argument of "Well, you have nothing better to do," I cave. Lets go.

We get to the Talent Show, and the stands are quite well packed. Mostly athletes, a few fans here and there, and a full stage front and center. It looked like a mini concert arena, with a concert feel to it. Let's get this show on the road.
Here come our hosts for the night...two SHIT faced athletes, one football, one Womens Lacrosse. We'll get to more on them later. They say their (rather slurred) hello's, everyone is in a generally perky mood, and we're ready to see our first video.

Wait, what? A video? Ok, I'll sit through it, it's brought to us by Women's Soccer. And that's what the video was of... women's soccer. It was soccer players... playing soccer, then cutting to other non-soccer players... playing soccer. Back to soccer players now juggling the ball at the football stadium. Now to a coach not playing soccer very well. Back to soccer players playing on campus. Literally 6+ minutes later, the video ends, and everyone applauds. Applause? What the fuck was that? What are we applauding? Is every sport just going to show a video of what they do, and then we do a talent show after? Well, I'm glad this video is over, let's bring back the MC's of the evening.

The football player (announcer 1) quite literally stumbles back on to the stage floor, as he and his lacrosse partner (#2) ramble about a charity that they clearly don't know anything about. #1 incoherently rants "We go over there, it means a lot, we play dodgeball so hard, it gets really competitive, and here's our next act."

On comes a 15 year old boy and a 45+ year old man doing a song on African Drums. All I could do was stare at this point. What am I watching? And what does this have to do with Student Athletes? 5 minutes of confusion later, The MC's come back and announce our next video for Women's Lacrosse.

Another Video. My heart sank and reality was kicking in. This was just the appetizer in a 17 course meal of athlete videos for the next two hours.  The women's lacrosse team made a parody of the viral video "Shit Girls Say" only it was "Stuff that Women's Lacrosse Players Don't Say." I thought these were going to be videos of athletes doing what they do, like what Women's Soccer did. No? Alright... Well, can anyone tell me when actual talent takes part in the TALENT SHOW??? No? This is awful. I want my pianos and stand up comedy that my-previous-self promised me.

Time passes, as do some really terrible "acts." Not Talents. Acts. The basketball team did a version of "the dating game" with their own teammates. The Women's Golf team made a Happy Gilmore trailer with their own athletes. None of this is talent. None of this is funny. None of this deserves anyone's attention.

But wait, here comes the volleyball team, and they're doing an act on Beauty Pageants? I think I know where this is going. Out comes #1, dressed ugly. #JP, looking like JP (but supposed to be ugly), then Miss Oregon, USA. Alaina Bergsma. Oh my did she look amazing (and was the only one of them all trying to be attractive).  They have "judges" help narrow down the selection, and finally the audience gets to decide who the winner is. Unfortunately for the VB team, they didn't account for the fact that they made one of their "ugly" participants a comedic relief, and the crowd unanimously voted her to win. But that's not what the script called for. The script called for Alaina to win... so they chose her as the winner of the fake competition, after which she promoted herself (which is fair). The script also called for Liz, #6, to come in during the middle of the act and do pushups on a volleyball and basketball wearing a softball uniform, then just stand there without really saying anything.

Following a "half time" intermission, the night was becoming long and the alcohol of the MC's was thinning. They began to literally read off of a script about charities they had no idea about. Female MC even said something along the lines of "I really don't know anything about this pet shelter, so I'm just going to read from the script. I've been once, and got to play with the dogs." Their tone became less patient, and their sass (the girls in particular) changed from trying-to-be-funny to being pessimistically evil and bitchy. Anyone who had common sense could tell that they didn't care at all about the charities they were promoting; they wanted the night to end. This isn't to say that ALL athletes there didn't care about charitable events, but man, did O Heroes do a poor job in choosing who the speakers were.

The tennis team was the only team that put a show on. It was filled with makeup, music, props, choreography, multiple sketches and Rabea. Everything I needed in a performance, they had. Men's golf (although long) also put in a solid effort (in video form). They made fun of themselves and the lack of respect they get, which translated well into humor.

As the end of the night approaches, we turn our focus to the judges. One judge in particular was a 10 year old boy with Intellectual Disabilities. It looked as if he was enjoying himself, but in reality it was really a tragic situation. 99.9% of the people in the stadium were oblivious to the fact that he was being used as a tool to make adults promote their charity. All he did was read statements that were right in front of him, or say things whispered in to his ear. He was, quite literally, a human prop. It was degrading and pitiful. People laughed at anything he coherently said. After a while, it was just hard to watch.

Finally, the end of the night comes, and the judges make their decision on who the winners are.
Best video went to Men's golf (which was deserving). And best act goes to Football (which was a freestyle 'Danceoff' that clearly none of the players had practiced). A fitting end to what was quite possibly the worst 2 hours of my life in Eugene Oregon.

I know I like food... but seriously?

Mere weeks after I claimed that I would start my first diet , I had my 22nd birthday.

Now, I know I like food, and everyone else knows this, but my birthday presents this year were a little over the top (to say the least). Let's recount all that I received on April 25th.

I wake up at 6:30 am to find what appears to be a chocolate cake. My oh my that frosting looks thick... just a quick taste of it... oh my god it's a NUTELLA Cake!!! Looks like the work of Rachelle Hobson. Only later do I find out that it was actually my roommate, Ben Vermillion, who made the cake. Thanks Ben!

Courtesy of Benjamin Vermillion

Alright, time to head to work. And what's this on the front table? Cinnamon Rolls? A Grad Student in my lab had his wife make me these the morning of my birthday. They were, in fact, delicious.

Thanks to Jim Davis (and his wife, Michelle Davis) for preparing hand made cinnamon rolls

But the day is far from over. I told my co-lab tech (Julia Kern) to NOT MAKE ME A CAKE ON MY BIRTHDAY. I figured I'd have cinnamon rolls and maybe something else coming, but what did she do? Make a Funfetti Cake? Fine. I'll eat that, too.

Funfetti, prepared by Julia Kern.

 Alright. FINALLY escaped the workplace at 7:00 pm. Time to get away from that gooey goodness that was funfetti and cinnamon rolls. Only to go to Frozen Yogurt with Dan Mahoney, Ali Davis and Ben Vermillion.

Ali gave me a Chocolate Bunny, while Dan provided gluten free brownies (pictured left) and paid for my yogurt (front and center), while reminding me of one of my favorite players on the volleyball team. Ben has already provided an entire cake at this point.

Yogurt and Brownies courtesy of DJ FLAVA, Bunny from Ali Davis.

Oh god. Make these sweets end. During yogurt, I received a phone call from a friend, Lauren Hawkins. Turns out she's at my apartment waiting to give me something. Time to head home....

Once home from yogurt, I notice it's not just Lauren there, but also her roommates; Carrie Frickman and Hannah Maurer... with a bag of groceries. WHAT IS GOING ON?

Lauren presents a tray (with oven mitts still on, this baby is fresh out of the oven). Turns out it's BANANA BREAD/NUTELLA CRUMBLE. HOLLLYYYYY FUCK. This is, by far, the tastiest of all the gifts.

Banana Bread swirled with Nutella/crumble on le top. L Hawk coming through.

 But let us not forget that both Carrie and Hannah work in a high-end Cafe, bringing an individual cake, a loaf of bread, AND 3 or 4 pastries.

Individual cake

Bread and pastries (pastries in the bag behind the bread).

FINALLY. it's 9:30 p.m. and the day is over. All gifts came in food form, and my diet was temporarily obliterated. If anyone is reading this blog, please come help and eat some of this. I am drowning in a sea of sugar and flour. Have as much or as little of anything you'd like. Except for the Banana/nutella bread. You stay the fuck away from that.

2 days later, Jason Thomas bought a Subway Cookie for me. Bonus points for him.

A recount of my 21st year of life

Well, I'm still alive after 21 years of life, and I've actually managed to do some really cool things so far. A lot has happened in this past year that has had a major impact on my choices and perspective; this post will aim to recount a few of the life altering events that have occurred, such as...

1. Learning how the Real World works

The Lab

In June of 2011 I accepted a full time job as a lab technician with a super awesome crew, starting immediately after I graduated (I did that in this past year too). Once detached from the floaty wings that was parental funding, I took the deep, dark, frigid plunge in to what most consider to be the Real World.


After 5 months of swimming on my own, life isn't too rough. I've learned a lot of things along the way, but the the main thing I've learned is that the general population is neither intelligent nor helpful. Well, I've always known this, but dealing with adults rather than college aged kids, I've drastically changed my tone from more optimistic and patient to demanding and stern. Things never get done by using a passive tone. It usually takes a metaphorical (and sometimes literal) backhand to a face to get things moving, which I'm becoming surprisingly efficient at delivering. And although that learning to hit people is the only thing I have in common with Chris Brown, it certainly isn't the only thing that I've learned this past year. I've also been...

2. Hanging out with Dan Mahoney too much

Unfortunately, I've let him in to my mind.  We both know how much of an impact he's had on my thoughts and perspective. I've learned when to yield a point of argument, my humor has become a bit more judgmental and "politically incorrect," and I've really stopped talking to the people that I get along with on the superficial level. For the first time in my 4 years of riding, I have a training partner that is now equally as fast and fit as I am. Only with Dan can I yell "AWWWW SKEET SKEET GOD DAMN" While tempo'ing at a heart rate of 194.  He also introduced me to something wonderful, which has led me to...

3. The development of my love for Volleyball and other non-traditional UO sports.

 Well, volleyball became my favorite sport to watch in person. The team is straight up awesome. One of my very few regrets in college is that I found out about them in my 4th year here. This left me thinking; what other non-traditional sports here are fun to watch? Of course, I enjoy football and basketball, but I also started to attend tennis matches, softball games, track and field events (although I've always gone to those) and the occasional women's basketball game. This has definitely redefined my love for sports, as I take in much more than just the sport itself, but rather the personality and enthusiasm of individual athletes.  

Other events that happened when I was 21:

• I went to Collegiate Nationals for Cycling (although we all know that I was just a little undeserving)
• Got some pretty sweet tan lines going 

• I've made over $150 and had 100k views on a youtube video 
• Co-authored my first soon-to-be-published academic paper on Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia.
• I've been a subject with Esophageal temperature probes, arterial line catheters, had my veins stuck over 100 times, and lots of other invasive/not fun things for science

• Received lots of benefits and prizes, including t-shirts, free meals and being on ESPN for signs I've made

Overall, I'd say I've had a pretty solid 21st year of life. Here's to hoping that the 22nd is even better.