Today marks the end of the third week I’ve been at Purdue. It was Open House Today! Instead of going to PMU today for lunch, we had a room in the Stewart Center with catered lunch. Unpopular opinion, but I prefer lunch at PMU. The reason we had catered lunch was because it was Open House Day, and parents that wanted to come would be joining us. My roommate Cory believes that the catered lunch is to put on an illusion of how nice it is here, but I, perhaps more naïvely, think it’s for the simple purpose of letting the parents enjoy good food.
I met quite a few of my friends’ parents, including Cory’s, which turned out to be much more chill than I had imagined. Talking to his parents, and seeing Cory embarrassed, which never happens, was pretty funny.
After lunch came some presentations about college, which started off with Dr. Bowdon reassuring us that we would all get into good colleges, supported by a ridiculously long list of the alumni that had been admitted and chosen to go to MIT and other great schools. Because scientists required DATA.
A trivia contest followed the college roundtable, where SSP (Super Sussy People) from biochem came out on top. Therefore, biochem is better.
After winning, we headed back to the dorms to get dressed for dinner. Even though we didn’t have to wear our suits, everyone decided to try and outdress genomics.
What followed was another very mid catered dinner where I got to know Cory and Phillip’s parents better, and even saw a TikTok video of Phillip dancing.
As all of biochem was dressed up, we took pictures with friends, faculty, and family. For a moment, it really seemed like the last day of SSP. Even though it actually isn’t the end, this day feels like a turning point for us. From now on, we’ll actually have to start writing our papers, our first paper related assignment being due on Monday.
As is practically tradition now for biochem, we ended the day by going to the parking garage (shoutout to Michelle’s “Meet Me At the Parking Garage” post) and taking some fire pictures. Like every other evening spent on the parking garage, I had so much fun there.
Even though only three weeks have passed, it really feels like some of the people here have become my closest friends, and I dread the day we’ll have to leave. Coming into this program, I expected more work and less free time, but instead we’ve regularly gotten nights off to hang out with friends. Much like scioly, the people here are largely what motivate me to improve.
To a few of my closest friends here, the rest of the “fearsome four”, Cory, Nathan, and Phillip, thank you for always having my back and picking me up when I’m tired.
To Brian and Payton, thank you for being such amazing labmates, and spending late nights in the lab with me catching up because of our insoluble protein.
To Aniyah, thank you for taking pictures of us everyday. When I’m old and my memory fades, I’ll still be able to look back on these photos and remember the great time I’ve had here.
To Michelle, thanks for your help writing the blog. Without you pushing me, it probably would’ve been a boring play by play of the day.
To Daniel, thanks for playing wild rift with me, even when other people think it’s cringe.
To the people who I tried to help on assignment 11, thank you for sitting through my unprepared explanations and me constantly getting distracted. I hope you guys all learnt a bit of chemistry that day.
To the rest of the boys, hanging out and talking every night in the dorm is so much fun and a great way to end the day.
It’s nowhere near goodbye yet though, there are still two more weeks left, and so far I’ve had the amazing privilege of getting to know and spend time with 35 other talented people. I’ve learned so much from all the diverse perspectives of the people here, I’ve even started hating English and literature just a little bit less. I know the next two weeks will be even better because of all of you, and I look forward to every second of it, even the lectures in the armory.
Love, Eric
Hi! I’m Eric from Mountain View High School in Mountain View California. When I’m not doing science related stuff, I enjoy hiking and rock climbing. I also spend a large chunk of my free time watching YouTube on my sofa; in particular, I really like the interviews LADbible does.
