Jarring morning news

There was a house fire yesterday morning that claimed two lives.
I just found out that this was a friend of mine from grade school and her boyfriend.

We hadn’t been close in a number of years, but I’m still freaking out.
Twenty is way too young to die.
Way.
Too.
Young.

I miss her. I hadn’t even seen her since some time in high school but we used to be such good friends and I feel like a piece of my heart has been ripped out, as cliche as that sounds. I went to look at her facebook profile and didn’t get very far without crying. She was a kind, intelligent, nature-loving, sweet, driven, beautiful, amazing person who was obviously well loved.
I hope she’s happy wherever she is.
Rest in Peace, Emily.

After I'm Gone

I've  never especially wanted to be buried.

I used to think I wanted to be cremated, but now I honestly want to donate my skeleton to an Anthro lab somewhere. I'm already an organ donor, so those who're still alive can use what I don't need any more, and a similar principle applies for wanting the rest of me to be used for educational purposes. I'm not using my bones any more if I'm dead, so someone may as well learn from them.
I guess that could seem sort of impersonal. It's not that I don't want to be remembered, I just don't see the need for my physical remains to sit around being useless.

Dead exciting

Aaagh, it seems I've gotten a bit behind on these posts.

Not that it's exactly an excuse, but in a way I've just had my own near-death experience.

Let's back  up a little so I can explain.

I had surgery on February 8th. Major abdominal surgery. Like, the slice down my belly is about 4 inches long and has a bunch of staples in it and hurts like hell if I try to move the wrong way.

I'm healing up well and feeling pretty good, but I have been distracted and preoccupied by this, especially since it's something that's needed to happen for a long time.

One of my friends commented, when I was chatting with him a few days before the procedure, that I should "try not to die."

We all laughed it off, but I caught myself thinking about it later that day.
How many times have I been close to death?

I know for a fact there have been several, such as my heart stopping several times when I was being born and a few near misses in traffic, but how many are there that I don't know about?

I'm not trying to be morbid, I just think it's pretty damn impressive that I've made it this far, all things considered. 

One of the books on my shortlist for the near future is about cadavers and how they're used in medical/scientific contexts.  I'm excited to read it, and it seems pretty interesting.

I'm reminded of high school when I was set on becoming a medical examiner/coroner and my friends all thought it was gross and didn't understand why I would possibly want to work with dead people. 

Well, for one, they're less frustrating to interact with than the living, and for another it's just /cool/. Seriously. How neat would it be to poke around an actual human body? 

Maybe I'll find one at some point.
I applied for a field school in the Gulf Islands this summer, Archaeology of the Salish Sea. I find out this Friday if I got in, and maybe if I do we'll find some human remains somewhere... That would be neat. 

So who's this nutter I'll be reading for the next few months?

Good question, I'll tell you.

My name is Dylyn, and I'm in my third year of what will eventually be an Anthropology degree with a minor in either Psychology or Women's Studies. 

I grew up here in Victoria and graduated from Mount Douglas high school (The one right next to the Ian Stuart building) in 2010, after which I came straight to UVic. I was originally planning to take the combined Biology and Psychology program but that ended up not working out as well as I'd hoped, and I wasn't as interested as I thought I'd be. 

I took ANTH 100 with Erin last summer, completely fell in love with the field, and haven't looked back. I'm a lot happier in school and am doing a whole lot better grade-wise since I switched, and I think I mostly have an idea of where I want to go. Basically, I've narrowed it down to two routes: Forensics, or gender and sexuality. They're both fascinating to me and I really have no idea how I'm going to decide. 

Outside of school, I sing in a local youth choir and that's currently it. Normally I'd be at least trying to look for work, but I have a major surgery coming up in a few weeks so that wouldn't really work so well. I'm unfortunately going to be away from school for a while, but it's going to be worth it in the end. I'll be keeping up with posting and whatnot from home, although I can't promise there won't be some ridiculous ones while I'm under the influence of painkillers. Consider this your warning.

I wanted to take Archaeology of Death because, honestly, it just sounded really cool and Erin is an awesome professor, so I figured I couldn't go wrong. That's not the only reason, though. Like I said, I'm thinking of going into forensics so that relates to death and human remains, and I've always found it an interesting topic. I remember having a bunch of "Horrible Histories" books as a kid where I read about Egyptian mummification and all sorts of other weird and awesome things, and that fascination has never really gone away. 

Also, I'm a huge fanboy. Of lots of things. Mostly Doctor Who.

I'm super stoked to meet everyone and start learning more about my classmates and what they're interested in and such. See you in class!

Dyl