Microscope

I'll never forget how amazing it was to dissect a frog in ninth grade biology class. I love frogs alive but I was fascinated by their innards. To me they were little doll-sized humans with elbows, heart, lungs, intestines. All the grossed-out kids in ninth grade gave me their frogs to dissect. Perhaps I should have been a biologist.

When we got to see pond water under the microscope I was totally hooked. Biology was my favorite class besides Art and French. For homework we drew paramecium and amoebas and grasshoppers labeled with words like maxilla and thorax. It doesn't get any better than that. In fifth grade we had to practice drawing an outline map of the whole United States for homework and memorize it! I got a strange tingling feeling when I drew slowly without looking down; explorer's penmanship. I was totally transfixed, I thought for sure I wanted to become a cartographer.

When I was 18 and living in North Carolina my dog Travis got a case of ear mites. The vet took a large Q-tip, sampled the browny wax, and smeared it on a narrow glass slide. He showed me the ear mites in his microscope. Ever since then I have wanted my own microscope.