Author: Chinmay J.
In a (partially) futile attempt to gather enough material to make this post, I decided I would start writing a journal to track my days here at SSP.
How it started:
How it’s going:
I would sleep that night without understanding how to do said proof. Never did two-months-ago-me expect to be writing a geometry proof on a whiteboard first thing on a Wednesday morning. Heck, even two-days-ago-me was a little suspicious as I erased my fifth dead end with my ink-stained hands.Â
I would get my answer a few hours later, after finally completing the proof and getting irrationally excited as I admired my messy figure and handwriting. Fast forwarding to tonight; as I stared at my computer screen, brow furrowed, at the astrophysics problem set that’s due in a few hours, I realized how SSP has encouraged me to be much more persistent to absorb the sheer volume of new information that’s being unleashed on my brain right now. And it’s not just me – this is what our #nmt-psetting-party voice channel (a place where we go to work outside the work-play blocks) looks like as I write this blog post way too late at night.
That firehose of information has also seriously skewed my sense of humor. This morning and the night before, I found myself in tears listening to the parallelogram song. Well, it’s this song that teaches – you know what, I think this needs to be admired on its own.
This video, and countless interesting conversations and the cries of despair of sleepy SSPers, originated from the work-play blocks we get in the evenings. Working through problem sets while randomly switching the conversation to career goals, text editors, and then back to hour angles and local sidereal times, I would never have imagined thoroughly enjoying solving mind-bending astrophysics problems over Zoom with a group of people I’ve known for just a few days.
We’ve spent our first week at SSP learning the foundations of observational astronomy. In the coming weeks, we’ll be doing observational astronomy, peering into the universe and into our problem sets as we continue to collaborate with each other. I can’t wait!
Author bio: Hi! I’m Chinmay. I’m interested in biology, computer science, and astrophysics [duh]. I’m an avid Science Olympiad and Science Bowl competitor. I was also a member of my high school tennis team and enjoy playing tennis with friends. In my free time, I enjoy weight lifting, programming, and following the latest updates in enthusiast computing and space exploration. After high school, I hope to pursue a career in medicine as a surgeon while also applying math and computer science to my work.
