: About Me

Sarah Parrish began writing when she was fifteen, publishing articles in a newsletter called Getting Ready for at-risk youth. She wrote on topics varying from balancing a checkbook to cleaning an apartment. Since then she has written for websites including Suite101, Helium and 1H2O, where she won an award for an article on the effects of droughts in California and Argentina.  She has co-authored publications in scientific journals, including The Journal of Comparative Neurology and Hearing Research.  She has also written articles for Real Estate Experts on how the housing markets in Oregon and California have been affected by the recession. 

Passionate about science her whole life, she has worked in research since she was sixteen years old.  She received her bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Oregon, but her interests vary from neuroscience and histology to handicrafts, beadwork, knitting, and sewing.  Scientist by trade, writer by hobby, originally from the Great Northwest of the US, she is currently living in Heidelberg, Germany where she works in an electron microscopy research lab.

Please feel free to contact her with suggestions, commendations, complaints, epiphanies, advice, support, frustrations, really good quotes, or just to say hello.

My passion is ...

my friends, bar none.

I know too much about ...

laws. Most people will answer "nothing" or "not much" but not me. From physics to the legal system, I know too many rules. I feel like they serve often as more of a hinderance than a help. The walls that protect us are the same walls that imprison us.

My parents always told me ...

don't smoke in bed and always, always know your dealer. I jest. They told me life isn't fair and... something else... give me a moment to recollect... Oh yeah, "Never forget who you are."

My childhood ambition ...

was to become a psychologist. Instead I work on the brain and that's plenty close enough, though I do still appreciate the power of the mind more than the power of the brain.

My favorite memory ...

is when I was homeless. I was about to fall asleep outside a train station. The night was a cold one and the sky was overcast. It looked like it was probably going to rain. For just a moment the clouds passed and let the moon shine through. It was full that night. I felt as if the sky was putting on a show just for me.

Why I write ...

to get better at it. And maybe, just maybe, for fun. (Never start a sentence with "and." It's against The Rules.) No matter how good I get I suspect those will always be my reasons.

What I am reading/watching/listening to ...

I don't watch TV but I'm not one of those people who looks down on those who do. I just lack the attention span for it. A commercial break comes on and I pick up a book and never turn back. Hence, I tend to read books. Currently I'm in the middle of Treasure Island. Avast!

My first job ...

was in a research lab. My first volunteer position, however, was in the psychiatric ward of a hospital where I disagreed with the head psychiatrist at age 16. He was later found to be in the wrong and fired. That's me - gutsy and often an imposition. (Don't tell my husband that. He already knows but it's probably kind not to remind him.)

My best moment ...

is when I'm with my husband, doing pretty much anything.

My inspiration ...

changes. To name a few: the Quest for Knowledge, the Desiderata, the Concept of Death, and Questioning Values.

Education > High School Humanities Best books for high school summer reading list

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One of the greatest benefits an education can provide is an understanding of people who aren't like yourself.  With this foundation, there's less animosity, defensiveness, and less fear of the unknown.  High school is a great time to take advantage of this type of learning, not only in daily interactions with other students who come from different backgrounds, but also through reading about people who've had very different life experiences.  Summer is a great time to look into some studies you might not have otherwise considered for lack of time.  Check out the followin...

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