My First Blog..

I don't usually publish my blog to the public, however I thought of the need of a healthy journal. What I meant by a healthy journal is, I want to keep my thoughts open to reality.

Often in my personal diary I write melancholy things, especially unfortunate moments that I experience during the day. The purpose of a journal is to let your emotions out on paper so that you don't need to keep it tucked in the chambers of your heart. Sadly, for many people (mostly ladies), the journal is used not to let go of the sad emotions, but rather to try to keep those emotions with them. Instead of letting go, they hold on even tighter with a reason that they simply don't want to let it go. For me unfortunately, I like to hold on to those melancholy emotions because I want to keep the good memories and remember it whenever and where ever I am. That is very sad because in life I have to learn to let go and move on.

Another purpose of this blog is that ever since I pursue Science, I don't encounter many projects that require writing an essay other than writing lab reports and sometimes an article. Frankly when I was in grade 10, I found out that writing was my weakest skill whereas music was my strongest one. So I do hope that by writing this so-called "healthy journal" I can improve my creativity in writing.

I am very excited and proud to announce that my cell biology class will be releasing a newspaper based on cell biology in local, national and international. My group will be doing a local research based on a genetic disorder in the heart of the tri-city (Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge). It is called a conversion disorder and it caught my attention right away since there are only FOUR people in the world that has it and THREE of them live in Cambridge. How amazing is that? This newspaper will be released sometime in March altogether with The Cord (the campus's newspaper). Our newspaper will be titled "The Cellulae" and it will be read by the student body on campus. This will be my first published article, although maybe it isn't officially-published (not sure how this thing works). But I hope it will be the start of the career I might pursue later on in the biomedical field.

Anyway, if any of you are wondering about the title of this blog, "The Long Journey of a Stem Cell," it's actually a phrase of encouragement that keeps me going in my studies. A stem cell is what you would call a "baby cell" and it can differentiate into many other types of specialized mature cells, i.e. neurons (nerve cells), cardiac cells, etc. These cells then work together as an organ with other specialized cells to contribute to one or more of the bodily functions. The message is that, you have a long journey ahead of you no matter how old you are right now. The goal is always to reach your maximum ability in the field of your own preference where your skills are optimum.

I know this is a very long first entry, but bare with me because I'm still excited about writing a public blog and stuff. Before I conclude, check out today's newspaper! I was reading the Toronto Star this morning before lecture and I was surprised to find out that the U of T research team discovered that the Wharton's jelly of a newborn umbillical cord can be quite useful. Back to the "stem cell" discussion, the Wharton's jelly is full of stem cells (considering it originates in a newborn). Shame on me, when I was studying the Wharton's jelly in histology last year I did not really pay attention to them as they are only young cells. Who knows they have really high potentials! They hope to use these stem cells to help people that need any kinds of transplants, etc. I am thinking that they might be able to culture the stem cells in vitro and turn it into the needed mature cells. Well, a report will be published sometime this week on this topic. This is a very exciting discovery!!

Lastly, this has taken much of my sleeping and studying time, especially have two midterms in two days. So I will end it now!

Enjoy!