I hate the Eagles. Funny coming from someone who grew up in Philadelphia, and someone who brought an eagles hat along with him to SSP. What I do like, however, is taking the first step to start random conversations with strangers . And that is what I did on this first day of SSP. On the bus to the NMSU campus, I sat with someone I’ve never spoken to before. He was not even in the same program as I, but by taking the first step I was thrown into a world very different to me. He was an eagles fan. He loves football (i’m not a fan of football), and never heard of my favorite sport ultimate frisbee (that is a pun). Although we shared minimal interests, SSP’s social environment helped us connect on what we do share a love for: science. For June 24th, the second day of SSP, I had even more interesting experiences with people i’d never have the chance to talk to outside of SSP. Besides our exciting first lab experience, I shared some of the most peculiar conversations and hardest laughs in a full Genomics group hangout. Whether it was gasping over an SSPer’s latest school drama, debating over the definition of “gram positive” bacteria, or yelling our new ultimate frisbee team chant, building connections with the Genomics team was a fun surprise. To be honest, I was not expecting such an outgoing social group from a bunch of STEM nerds like me, but SSP has made me very excited to bond as a team more in the coming weeks.
PS. If you reading this, astro kid i talked to on the bus, I have a surprise gift for you: my dusty eagles hat.
