by Nico V.
“How art thou awoken, mine eyes art [droopy]”
Oliver
So, it’s day 5 of classes. Just this morning, we went through almost the entirety of Calculus, even briefly touching partial differentiation, part of multivariable Calculus. Oh, and yesterday we learned spherical trigonometry. A week ago I didn’t even know that was a thing. So far SSP has been a mixture of fun, learning, and hard work. Between class time and problem sets, we’re kept pretty busy. So, naturally, after a night working on problem sets and Python code until at least midnight, a generally lively time in the computer lab, we don’t get quite as much sleep as we’re used to. I distinctly remember the first morning, when almost everyone trekked 12 minutes to Chase Dining Hall for breakfast. Fast forward to today, and now only… well I didn’t go today so I guess I’m not sure. But as far as I know it’s pretty desolate there in the mornings.
SSP is hard. There’s no getting around it. We have work almost all of the time, and when we’re not doing work, we’re thinking about it or making jokes (think nerdy math/physics jokes). I’ll share one of my favorite physics-related comments I recently heard. Concerning Kepler’s Second Law, which dictates that when an object is farther away, it travels slower. Gabriele pointed out how this is completely opposite to SSP. When we move through more and more material (equivalent to an object getting farther away), everything is taught faster. I would never hear something like this anywhere else, only here where we’re all complete nerds. To help with the reader’s understanding of the UNC SSPers’ sleep, I’ve included a helpful visual aid demonstrating the relationship between sleep and the time spent laughing over the past week. This plot was drawn with the help of my peers, some of whom fall into the “Lin-Deoraj Critical Area,” helpfully nicknamed as the “Delirious Zone”.
As further evidence of the existence of the Delirious Zone, I have conducted a rigorous scientific study on sleep at SSP. This study consisted of one participant, Oliver, and began when I received an unprompted text during our last lecture. The messages read, “How art thou awoken” and “mine eyes art [droopy].” I feel like this is evidence enough of the Delirious Zone.
Despite low sleep, working late into the night, late night/early morning observing sessions, and new topics taught quicker than at any of our schools, I’m having a ton of fun. SSP is a really special environment where everyone is driven and passionate. This environment makes everything worth it. I always look forward to working through Psets and assignments, whether it’s Python, spherical trig, or something entirely new I didn’t even know existed.
About Me
Hi! I’m Nico, and I live in California. I enjoy playing soccer and volleyball, building things, and learning about space. In my free time here at SSP (there isn’t a lot), you can find me sleeping, laughing (see graph above), or on my way to get a burrito from the Cosmic Cantina.
