Hello everyone! This is my
first time dealing with a blog, so I am excited to see how this goes throughout
this fall semester.
My name is Kaitlyn Chappel, and
I am a senior at Kansas State University. I am majoring in Biology (with a
Human Health Biology track) with an emphasis in pre-optometry. My two minors
are Psychology and Leadership Studies. I am from Garden City, KS, which is a rural
town in the southwestern part on the state. Fun fact: I am closer to Colorado
and Oklahoma than I am Manhattan, Kansas. I don't have a specific place in mind
on where to go when I finally have my big girl job, but I do know that I would
not mind coming back to Manhattan or going home. I will go wherever my job
takes me!
Something that I am passionate
about is the eyes and specifically ocular diseases. I know three people in my
life who are affected with ocular diseases. One was born almost completely
blind and the other two lost most of their vision rather quickly at some point
in their life. It is very disheartening because you would think that with how
far we have come in science and research, you would think there would be
options available. However, there isn't much that can be done as of now. Vision
exercises, a potential stem cell treatment, and a special kind of glasses are
what is available for certain cases right now. I want to become an Optometrist
and focus on ocular diseases so that maybe by the time I retire, patients with
ocular diseases can have more treatment options and a better prognosis.
What fascinates me about
evolution is the simple fact at how complex the theory has become and what we
believe to be true based off the evidence available. The theory seems surreal
at times, and it feels like it's from a sci-fi novel. Biology itself also
fascinates me because of how much we have figured out over time. When it comes
to the anatomy of the human body, we started out guessing before opening a
cadaver and now we have a map of sorts on what our bodies are comprised of and
how it functions. I personally think it's funny how we know so much about the
human body and yet still the appendix is a bit of a mystery.
I honestly still am not completely sure about how evolution relates to my daily life. Maybe it is the food that we eat and how it has evolved over time. Or maybe it is the fact that we became industrialized and civil over time and learned from previous generations’ mistakes. I hope to learn more about evolution, how it works, and why it works. It is something that is taught in every biology class but is skimmed over and you just take it at face value. Maybe by understanding the concept better, I will appreciate the world around me more.
