So... we're done?



My lab partner and I just submitted the Mod3 mini-report, finishing out our last assignment for 20.109. It was a strangely anti-climactic end to the semester. "So we're done.. ?," we told each other over Zoom.
Quarantine began so abruptly that it feels as if college has been put on hold as opposed to moving online. When I think about going back to campus, I envision the same dorm room and classrooms I left in March. It’s weird to think that I’m fully wrapping up and moving on from my spring classes (*knock on wood*, I’d still like to pass).
The mini-report itself was graciously short and straightforward. The words “data summary” gave me flashbacks to the Saturday spent working in office hours on the Mod1 data summary. I remember watching the sun move across the sky and set and then having a follow-up meeting later that night. This was significantly easier. While most of that is due to the assignment itself, I’d like to think that I’ve also become a better scientific writer. Some of my improved writing has carried into other aspects of my life as well. I’m more aware of the unnecessary words I used when writing and talking, and I’ve been working on cutting them out. (I previously might have said this sentence as: “I’d like to think that, for example, I’m slightly more aware of the extraneous, unnecessary wording I use when trying to communicate.” ((OK, maybe not that bad, but close.))) I did miss writing this data summary around other groups. Even though that Saturday in office hours was long, there was a nice sense of community around the assignment.
So… we’re done. I’m off to UROP and bake bread and watch Tiger King for the summer. I don’t think I’ve had the full quarantine experience until I know who Carol Baskin is and why she killed her husband.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Message from the Peak of Everest

Hello world. As I stand here about twenty feet from the summit, a sense of accomplishment washes over me. It's an undertaking few have conquered. Still, at the same time I feel a sense of dread. I made it here, but what about the trip on the way down? Supplies are lower than expected, the crew is tired, and the nights have been getting longer and longer. There's a small chance we might not even have enough oxygen for the next two days, I haven't had the chance to do the math. Why are we even up here? What hubris drove us to try to conquer this majesty of nature? What were we looking for? Looking out across the broken and jagged Himalayas, I feel contemplative. It's about 6:34 am, and the darkness is starting to lift. Wind is strong, but no snowfall. We dug ourselves a little crevasse to shield ourselves from the wind, and we're on the east side of the mountain. 2 more minutes till sunrise. It was a difficult trip up. It was lonely and sad and cold and
Read more

Zooming in on Journal Club

This journal club has easily been the most unique one I’ve done. Some things still stayed the same, like having to identify key components to form cogent story. It was an interesting challenge to excavate the main data of my paper and pare unnecessary details and figures. I could feel the pressure of the 10-minute time limit as I tried to strike a proper balance of details to enhance the figures’ main story without overwhelming my audience. An unexpected challenge, however, was to get around the sheer awkwardness I felt when catching a glimpse of myself presenting in the corner of my screen. I always have had a nonzero amount of presentation anxiety, but I didn’t expect the same feelings to resurface when talking to a computer screen instead of a live audience. I also found that became more attuned to specific words and phrases than I would in a live presentation. Consequently, I found myself restarting my recordings over small details that I normally wouldn’t pay attention to.
Read more

Reflections on 20.109

Today was the last lecture of 20.109, and as I signed off the Zoom call, I felt a little flutter of sadness. 20.109 presented a unique dynamic that I'd never had in a class before. I'd never had to spend 5 hours a day in class for a single course, or had to present my own novel ideas and be subjected to the interrogations of my classmates or instructors, or write my own research article draft. I learned a bunch of new skills in 20.109, but the following were the ones that will stick with me the most. 1. Schematics - I learned to LOVE making schematics. So much so, in fact, that I am strongly considering buying a BioRender subscription, which is something I usually avoid at all costs. There's something so satisfying about generating your own schematics for presentations and controlling every aspect of the story the image tells. I love coordinating the colors and paring the experimental details down to what is absolutely necessary to tell the story. 2. Effective prese
Read more