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.