With the rough feel of goat fur, the awe at seeing Next-Generation Sequencing machines, and the disappointment of basically everything being overpriced at Walmart fresh in our minds, today, we dove right back into the world of biochemistry.
Our day began bright and early with back-to-back lectures on enzyme catalysis and enzyme kinetics. I must admit that I’m rather proud that I was able to stay engaged throughout both lectures – but I certainly can’t take the credit. Instead, I must thank Joe for raising the window blinds (on the side of the room that I completely thought was a wall) and allowing the 8am sunshine to battle with the room’s melatonin-infused walls. Later in the lab, we made a lot of solutions, successfully performed serial dilutions, and conducted an enzyme activity assay, whose line of best fit yielded an R-squared value that was much closer to one than the amount of times it takes me to format data on Excel will ever be.
I’m a Google Sheets kid.
Today’s lunch also led to new discoveries–and good ones at that. Every Thursday in the clearing near Oval Road, one can find a local farmer’s market with around 15 independent stalls (which is also the number quite close to how many tries it takes me to format data on Excel). Although the food at the Purdue Memorial Union dining area isn’t horrible, the farmer’s market’s food was a much welcomed reprieve–much like when my lab partner Aniyah agreed to do all of the Excel formatting for our experiment today, and she definitely excels at it.
Okay, I promise I’m done being mad at Excel now.
I would say the best part of my day came in the late evening, snacking on cherries and watermelon in the Honors South Residence Building’s small kitchenette. An hour and a half flew by, much like our cherry supply, and I really think I’ve never laughed so hard in my life – thanks to Maya and Natalie for the amazing conversations.
It is moments like these that make my SSP experience amazing on a whole nother level. Of course the science and the experiments are both very engaging and interesting, but it’s truly the people in this camp that’s made it so special. Losing hours of sleep talking with my roommate Sai every night and drawing with others on white boards at 10:30 pm to figure out primer sequences makes my experience special. Spontaneously sight reading violin trios with Grace and Alexis, spending evenings at the volleyball court with my friends, and talking about our day at my dinner table makes my experience special. I enjoy interacting with every single person here, because they all make the horror of me having to learn Excel bearable. But all jokes aside, everyone here has made my time excellent, because everyone is truly amazing, so much fun to work with, and great to talk to, and for that, I am truly grateful.

Hello! My name is Diego, and I’m a rising senior at Skyline High School in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I am a huge fan of going outside, eating pasta, reading, and studying languages. As probably evident, I am not a huge fan of Excel. In my free time, I enjoy playing the violin, rowing, and spending time with friends and family!