michelle rivers - my adventure blog

Packed up my life in my little Honda Fit - it sure does fit a lot! ;) It's been a busy couple of weeks moving and settling in to my new home!  My cross-country road trip went pretty smoothly once I got through California traffic and some heavy rain in Utah/Colorado.  My only company was my reptile friend Mojave, who, much to his dismay, stayed in a small container in the passenger seat for the week on the road.  Despite some days where I felt like the road would never end, for the most part I really enjoyed the quiet time and the passing landscapes.  I broke up the drive by stopping for APA (a psych conference) in Denver, where I presented a poster in a special session on "Applying Cognitive Psych to Education". Some colleagues I met up with in Denver. Visited my friend Trisha in Urbana, Illinois on the way to Ohio. Since arriving in Stow, I've been unpacking and making plenty of trips to Target and Lowe's (thankfully only 7 mins away) to get e

Names are somewhat arbitrary labels, but they have a profound influence in shaping our lives and personalit y .  I recently decided to change my last name from "Hickman" to "Rivers", and have been thinking a lot about what our names say about our identity. When I ask myself, "Who am I?", my name is always the first thing to pop into my head. But now that I have a slightly different answer, it doesn't mean that I'm a different person. Right?  Usually when we want to re-invent ourselves, it takes a lot of dedication and hard work from the inside out. But a name change works from the outside in - a re-branding of sorts. Even so, in choosing what I wanted to call myself, I had to think deeply about what label best encompasses how I want to been seen by the world. Although I only chose to change my last name, my full name - Michelle Lauren Rivers - now carries additional power because I chose it.  Why change my last name? Actually, I think

Spring was great, full of: -  2 sets of house finch broods and mating alligator lizards on our porch - plenty of family and friend time - exploring new hobbies - tutoring and TAing Research Methods at Mesa College - presenting classroom research at a conference in Long Beach - Girl Scout events, including a backyard campout - a trip to Kauai with Mom and Tony! We snorkeled nearly everyday, and did a helicopter tour of the island. Here's a glimpse of April/May: Visited my friend Patrick in Tucson, AZ, and my friend Kaelle came down to SoCal for a visit! Appropriately posed in front of a silo in rural Pennsylvania. Last month (June), my Mom and I flew out to the east coast.  We started out looking for housing for me in Ohio and were very successful!  We found a great condo in a quiet, safe neighborhood only a few miles from campus (with an attached garage for those nasty winter days!)  I already have a roommate and furniture lined up.  It was especially

2016 started right, with lots of good news from grad schools I had applied to.  I quickly narrowed my choices down to UCLA, UC Santa Cruz, and Kent State University.  I'm so glad I went to the interviews, because I was able to see each campus, speak with current students and faculty, and ask lots of questions.  Ultimately, I decided on Kent State University , as it is the best fit for my research interests.  (If you're like me, and had only heard of Kent from the unfortunate events that took place on May 4th, 1970 , then I can now tell you it's in the northeast corner of Ohio, about 40 minutes south of Cleveland.)  At the end of the summer, I will be starting in their doctoral program in experimental psychology, where I will be researching student learning and metacognition with Dr. John Dunlosky as my primary research advisor!  I'm so excited to get started (and a little nervous about the winter weather), but obviously have a lot of planning to do before then (like