Memory Book/Elisa Kolk (Karynn Ehlanii)

Hi :) I'm a female medical student in my mid-20s and in the middle of my training to become a doctor. One day I plan to be a pediatrician - and probably a pediatric hematologist/oncologist, which is a doctor who takes care of kids with cancer (like neuroblastoma, retinoblastoma, and leukemia) and/or blood disorders (like sickle cell anemia, hemophilia, and leukemia). I've got a few more years of training until I can get that far though.

Characters

• Karynn Ehlanii
• PNPCs:
  • Marcel Doubleaux
  • Megan Barkett

Real Life information

Medical School keeps me really busy, so I don't often have time to do many other things. When I do have the time, I love to crochet. It helps keep my hands busy while I'm watching TV, movies, or even recorded lectures from school. I recently made a "crochetted quilt" where I made small crochetted squares and then put them together. It turned out looking pretty cool!  :) I have an interest in genealogies and I sometimes compose for the piano and flute. As far as compositions go, I'm most proud of a collection where I set hobbit songs from JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings to music for a class project.

How you came to UFOP: SB118

I found the group through my then-boyfriend, now-fiance. He joined the group about 7 months before I did. At first, when he joined, I thought it was just silliness, and got pretty annoyed when he would spend HOURS reading, writing, fussing with pictures, etc. Then, I started reading some of the posts (just to see what was so funny). For a few months he started his own tiny group for a small group of Trekkie friends who were far too busy for UFOP:SB118 but who might enjoy the general format. I started really enjoying the SIMming format but the rest of us weren't nearly active enough to keep it going. Around that time I started reading posts from the ship Jack was assigned to again and got HOOKED. (laughs) I couldn't quit reading. So he suggested that I actually join. I was worried about the time commitment, but then as we thought it over, we figured out that it was probably do-able with my schedule. I joined in Late September of '07.

History

Now talk about your memories of the group. Here are some ideas for what to talk about:

I was first placed on the USS Ronin, which I requested because it was where Jack was assigned. We're both still there now. It was helpful that Jack had already "broken the ice", and that I had done a lot of reading of the SIMs ahead of time because he had already made friends out of character. I started talking to a lot of the same people out of character and it has really eased my transition in character, I think.

As a Counselor, it has been a bit of a challenge to gain the crew's trust. I'm not sure if its widespread throughout the group or just on my ship, but it can definitely be a challenge to SIM a counselor, because it kind of requires gaining people's trust. On the other hand, the command staff has worked hard to a) send people my way for mandated counseling, b) give me diplomatic-type tasks to help me develop that skill and c) give me science tasks to work with my character's other strengths. As more people get used to the fact that I'm around, they've been more willing to have a chat with the counselor.

So far, my greatest quantifiable achievement in the group is my single promotion from Ensign to Lt. JG. I'm also fairly proud of a few SIMs I've written - many of these are on the Wiki for anyone to read. Ultimately I have a few goals award-wise that I'd like to achieve in the next few years. I'd also like to just keep improving my writing - both in SIMs and in the writing challenges.