Isabelle Puccio:

Mass and Maine, I would say they’re sisters but not twins. Maine is like the nicer sister and Massachusetts, she’s a little bit more sassy. Maine feels like a hug, honestly. It feels like a warm hug. Everyone loves each other. There’s that big sense of community. We’re all just one big state of Maine.

Hello, my name is Isabelle Puccio, I’m a senior, crazy, Biomedical Engineering major in the Honors College. And this is my life in the pines.

We are walking by Cloke Plaza, heading towards Ferland. There she is, my house. If you look up there, I’m a Biomedical Engineer, so I live on the third floor. We do a lot of research here. A lot of our core classes are here.

You peek right over here. We’re in the CompuMaine lab, which is where I work. It’s really nice to work in a state-of-the-art building. I’m able to come in here later to study. So I don’t just have to like do my classes here. I still come and do like homework. I’ll take a whiteboard for like a health exam and go absolutely crazy. It’s one of the best parts of my week, I will not lie.

So I research in the CompuMaine lab. And if you were to ask me in high school, like what research you want to do, this would not have been it. During our freshman year courses, all of the lab instructors come in and introduce themselves. And Dr. Khalil introduced himself and his research. And I was really interested, but I didn’t think I was capable. And I didn’t really step up until my second year, where I felt that I had the skills to really get involved. And then I had an opportunity to pursue a summer fellowship. And I got really interested in the research I do here.

I specifically look at H&E digital pathology slides. So that’s kind of like when you go in to get a biopsy, what the pathologists will get from you. I get to see those slides and work with them every day, which is really cool.

So I’m an out-of-state student. I’m actually from Massachusetts. I was really nervous about finding my group, finding my like UMaine family, but that happened really quick, really easily. I have a lot of friends in the band. I have a lot of friends in my major. The band is big, but my section’s always been smaller. So we’re like a tight-knit community and it’s the best thing ever.

I’ve been doing marching band, I want to say 10 years now, which is a really long time. That’s like more than half my life, which is crazy. I knew I wanted to do it in college. So when I saw like what a huge program we have here, I was like, might as well. I’ve been a section leader for the past three years. And it’s been like the greatest privilege in the history of ever. I have the best section.

I feel like my favorite part of music and band is that everyone is important. Like if you’re even on like the second part or the third part, the song does not sound the same without you. And that’s kind of another way that I feel about life. Like every person is equally important. Like, yeah, you might be third-kazoo, but that song will never be the same without the third-kazoo.

So I didn’t really get to do symphonic band until my second year. I was really nervous when I first auditioned, because I’m a self-taught French horn player until I got to school here when I started taking lessons. So I auditioned for the symphonic band, not thinking I was gonna get in. And then I got put on the third horn. Been playing in the group for three years now.

I just love to perform honestly, and I love the athletic aspect of it. My good friend Sarah is a big part of dance here and we both study biomed together. And she’s like, “I love dance. I know you danced like 30,000 years ago. You should come try it.” So on a whim, I went to Dance Club last semester and I’ve been in love with it ever since. I’m actually taking some dance classes right now. And it’s been great to get back into that motion.

I don’t think I would have gotten this experience anywhere else. Like other schools I was looking at maybe had more labs with more opportunities, but I feel like as an undergrad, I wouldn’t have gotten as much of an enriching experience because there have been too many people.

I would say Maine is kind of like a great melting pot of personalities and people. You’ll find that everyone is really welcoming and really joyful. There’s a lot of just like community joy and like camaraderie, like everyone in Maine roots for the University of Maine, which is really awesome.

Never forget that perhaps in your own life, you’re your own third horn and you just make everything just a little bit better.
You all deserve to see the lovely poetry of our director, Mr. White.

The warm Maine sun is starting to rise, melting the frost before your eyes. Soon the seniors will march to graduate. Come get a muffin before eight.

That’s his poetry. That’s just one of them. We get like three to four every game day.