Genetics. Deoxyribonucleic acid. The thing that makes us individual…unless you’re an identical twin, in which case, it makes you exactly the same as one other person.

I was listening to information about genetics, chromosomes, DNA, assays, and alleles today, and it renewed my sense of wonder for the world of genetics. Genetics is one of the majors I’d considered after high school. When I was in AP Biology as a junior in high school, to me, nothing was as interesting as the section on genetics. That stuff was SO intriguing. At the time, the Human Genome Project was still fairly new, and I thought it would be so cool to be a researcher on the project. My grand plan was to major in genetics and music. Only one school in Washington offered genetics as a major, though – Evergreen State College. Somewhere along the line, my mother had heard that the field of Genetics wasn’t going to grow much after the Human Genome Project was done. For some reason, I didn’t consider the idea that the Human Genome Project would just be a starting point in many senses, and that there would be a vast array of applications for the study of DNA and genes.

I remember making grids to map out potential traits that could carry over into children, depending on the parents’ genotype. I had a BLAST doing that mapping.

In college, I took a microbiology course (because the description of the course said it would include a section on genetics) and one of the labs was analyzing our own DNA. We got a photo paper with our genetic markers showing…I honestly kept that thing for YEARS. I don’t remember why I finally tossed it; I think I looked at it one day and thought it was a little silly to be carrying around this picture of my DNA. But, I kid you not, I thought it would be useful to someone if they found my body somewhere and needed to do some DNA testing. I thought it was a better form of identification than my drivers’ license.

I don’t know why I felt the urge to post this, other than to walk down memory lane a bit and publish my ultra-geekiness to the world. Some day, I plan on going back to school to take genetics classes, just for fun.

Yes, I’m definitely a GEEK.