On Being Homeschooled



Today marks three weeks of quarantine in my childhood house. This past week was the first week back to classes, and to an extent I was happy to get back to more of a schedule. Unfortunately, this didn't correlate with being productive. I've had a hard time both leaving campus and trying to think about (or not think about) this whole *global pandemic* thing. For me, the personal and more broad worries tend to compound each other until I find myself a few hours into a rabbit hole of articles on disease models. Or starting a blog post for a lab class with a frustrated stream of thought.

Through all the change, my collaboration with my lab partner Abby has stayed a reliable constant. We recently finished and resubmitted our data summary, which felt like a well deserved small victory. I tend to write in overly wordy sentences, so working on a writing assignment with another person helped me keep this in check. Abby's always been patient and helpful, even when I ask the same question 3+ times in a single Zoom call, and I'm really thankful we've been able to work together. The revision process itself was also helpful, and it was rewarding to see how my writing improved with the suggested edits.

In addition to the actual lab portion of this lab class, I miss just being around my classmates. There's no real Zoom-from-home equivalent to leaning over to nearby lab benches to talk between experiments. I'm struggling to stay focused while working alone, especially when it feels like the workload is especially heavy.

If I have to find a positive, it's that it's an interesting time to be studying biology and drug design. I'm thankful to have a bit of background in these topics so that I can better understand what is going on in the news and try to explain certain concepts to my family. I hope that this mess produces more respect and funding for preventative pandemic measures, and a more comprehensive healthcare system.

I'm looking forward to eventually returning to campus; I'll appreciate my time there even more.


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