6 Week Trial
Week #4
With my duffel bag slung over my shoulder, I concentrate on maintaining perfect posture despite the extra weight of gym shoes & clothes, a beach towel, swimsuit, goggles, and all my shower stuff. Although a backpack would be much more practical, I insist on lugging around this navy blue Wal-Mart duffel with a creaky, plastic shoulder strap attached and a broken side pocket. All my energy focuses on keeping my head up and back flat as a board while my muscles adamantly protest.
"Excuse me?" I suddenly stop walking, glancing around for the presumably lost visitor. I see a small Asian looking girl with a backpack (smart thinking!) on, rotating a campus map around and back again. "Hi - Do you know where Canyon View Pool is?"
"Yeah, it's right this way. I'm actually going there now. Would you like me to take you?" I respond feeling somehow older and more mature. Most people here presume I'm in college and this small directional question makes me feel like I actually am.
As we walk, I go on to learn that she's graduating at the end of the summer... from Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh. She happens to be a Computer Science major and I foolishly tell her about my research-based internship in which I've learned a lot about computational science. Of course, she proceeds to ask what programming language we use. Excluing being around all the genius scientists, mathmaticians and computer programmers at work, I've recently felt pretty smart and scientific but this is just thing I need to put me back in my place. Although I am getting more confident with my work and it actually feels like I have a pretty good idea of what I do and why I do it, feeling like I'm on top of the world and acting like I am extremely knowlegable in the subject of theoretical science isn't something I need to be doing.
The college environment here is a new and refreshing place to be. Not to say that everyone who goes to college loves learning and is completely serious about their education, but being around a more educated and knowledge-thirsty crowd feels right. Watching two of the guys that live a few floors above work on 8 page papers while everyone else chats and watches TV is not something that happens in high school. We will either wait until we're in complete solitude, procrastinate to the night before or morning it's due, or simply not write that darned essay for English. Most will still get, not earn, that A or B but truly, how much effort and work was put into it? During summertime of all seasons, it's nice to see college "graduates" (they technically don't graduate until the end of the calendar year) still taking classes and writing papers.
As a side note, much to my own dismay, I've learned to really enjoy using a computer for this work. Now, to everyone who I've expressed my obvious distaste for computer based careers in general, I like using a PC as a tool to accomplish other tasks, say, discovering new drugs for bird flu...
One more thing - sorry this was such a choppy and disconnected post! It feels like this one doesn't flow as well as the others. I'll just have to make next weeks that much better...
With my duffel bag slung over my shoulder, I concentrate on maintaining perfect posture despite the extra weight of gym shoes & clothes, a beach towel, swimsuit, goggles, and all my shower stuff. Although a backpack would be much more practical, I insist on lugging around this navy blue Wal-Mart duffel with a creaky, plastic shoulder strap attached and a broken side pocket. All my energy focuses on keeping my head up and back flat as a board while my muscles adamantly protest.
"Excuse me?" I suddenly stop walking, glancing around for the presumably lost visitor. I see a small Asian looking girl with a backpack (smart thinking!) on, rotating a campus map around and back again. "Hi - Do you know where Canyon View Pool is?"
"Yeah, it's right this way. I'm actually going there now. Would you like me to take you?" I respond feeling somehow older and more mature. Most people here presume I'm in college and this small directional question makes me feel like I actually am.
As we walk, I go on to learn that she's graduating at the end of the summer... from Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh. She happens to be a Computer Science major and I foolishly tell her about my research-based internship in which I've learned a lot about computational science. Of course, she proceeds to ask what programming language we use. Excluing being around all the genius scientists, mathmaticians and computer programmers at work, I've recently felt pretty smart and scientific but this is just thing I need to put me back in my place. Although I am getting more confident with my work and it actually feels like I have a pretty good idea of what I do and why I do it, feeling like I'm on top of the world and acting like I am extremely knowlegable in the subject of theoretical science isn't something I need to be doing.
The college environment here is a new and refreshing place to be. Not to say that everyone who goes to college loves learning and is completely serious about their education, but being around a more educated and knowledge-thirsty crowd feels right. Watching two of the guys that live a few floors above work on 8 page papers while everyone else chats and watches TV is not something that happens in high school. We will either wait until we're in complete solitude, procrastinate to the night before or morning it's due, or simply not write that darned essay for English. Most will still get, not earn, that A or B but truly, how much effort and work was put into it? During summertime of all seasons, it's nice to see college "graduates" (they technically don't graduate until the end of the calendar year) still taking classes and writing papers.
As a side note, much to my own dismay, I've learned to really enjoy using a computer for this work. Now, to everyone who I've expressed my obvious distaste for computer based careers in general, I like using a PC as a tool to accomplish other tasks, say, discovering new drugs for bird flu...
One more thing - sorry this was such a choppy and disconnected post! It feels like this one doesn't flow as well as the others. I'll just have to make next weeks that much better...
Add a Comment
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Comment by Jacob Durrant on July 24, 2008 at 12:56am - Meghan sure is doing fantastic work on bird flu here in the McCammon lab. It's been a pleasure working with her.
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Comment by Sonchia Jilek on July 21, 2008 at 4:09pm - Meghan - Love the post!
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