Looking back at my four weeks at SSP, I feel very proud of myself for finishing 4 weeks of it already, and am so glad I applied to SSP. I can’t lie, those four weeks have been a big challenge for me, it was a whole other level that I haven’t even thought of before, let alone experienced.
I learned very valuable lessons in SSP about science and collaboration. The academic part of the SSP was much harder than what I expected. Before SSP, I did prepare somewhat, but I truly wasn’t ready to be this confused and overwhelmed. It was challenging to admit I wasn’t understanding things, it was challenging to learn to ask questions. I have always been sort of a do-it-all-by-yourself person, but in SSP; I learned that there’s going to be times when I HAVE TO get help (Basically every single Pset and code) in order to get a couple of hours of sleep, and I saw that life is just REALLY easier when I collaborate, so why make life harder for myself in and outside SSP?!
It’s a great pleasure to learn from our amazing professors Dr. Ice, Dr. Domingue, and Dr. Kim with Dr. Ice’s sports commentaries and humor, Dr. Domingue’s secret drawing talent and astronomy lectures, and Dr. Kim’s lovely cats, sewing and singing skills. Picking 2000 YJ66 as our asteroid with my lovely teammates Alexander and Christine, it has been a very confusing but fun journey to analyze our asteroid’s behavior, process our telescope images through some complicated steps that I never thought I would be able to understand and do.
Our dear TA’s Afura, Andrei, Dominick, and Molly always make our workplay blocks absolutely fabulous; I love going to the workplay block everyday, working on Psets or my OD code with other students and the TA’s until my brain shuts down for the day, and then playing Codenames. Regardless of if I finished my Pset and debugged my code or not, I always leave the block with so much joy, and go to sleep with a smile on my face (I actually do the last part, I always get scared someone in the house would catch me laughing to myself while going to the bathroom to brush my teeth).
It sometimes surprises me that I’m able to have all this experience in my bedroom in Turkey, with my peers, TA’s and professors all over the world. I get into a different universe, the “SSP Universe”, when the clock hits 4 pm for me. I speak a different language there, do different things, see different people and worry about different things. Though sometimes my SSP universe gives little “glitches” that I find hilarious like kids barking on the street (Yes, it happened.), soccer matches near my house, my mom loudly arguing on the phone with the realtor, or my 8 year old cousin sneaking in and awkwardly watching for a while. Those glitches sometimes remind me that soon, when SSP is over, but I am still involved as an alumnus, I will turn back to my normal life, but I will have SSP glitches this time as an alumnus. Weird to think about. I will wake up on a Monday morning 7 days later, I won’t be stressed about SSP work — which I also strangely feel sad about — and neither will I get into a Zoom call with my favorite SSPers.
But with its ups and downs, Psets and Codenames, OD and Gartic, guest lectures, fun campus hours, observing requests, pranks, SSP-astas, talent show, Scavenger Hunt, Bingo, and the things that are ahead before and after SSP finishes; I will be forever grateful for the experience I had this summer at SSP University of Colorado Boulder.
— Nisa
