I woke up feeling particularly eager to hear the morning lecture, which was supposed to be on writing. I didn’t know exactly what we would be learning, but I was excited to be doing something other than math and science at the Super STEM-focused Smart Science Scholars Program. It was also quite cloudy, which was nice because that meant the sun finally wasn’t glaring down at us.
The lecture ended up being about the components of a scientific paper and everything that we would be writing for our orbital determination report. We learned that we shouldn’t form parasocial relationships with our asteroid and that the asteroids are unfortunately NOT our friends. There goes my plans of meeting up with my beloved 1998 RO4.
During lunch, I tried my best to convince Ben to do something exciting for my blog post. I asked him to simply fake an injury (nothing serious, just a broken leg) so that I’d have interesting stories to write about, but I guess that was “too much” or something. The most he did was suspiciously drink his water before asking if we could leave.
The afternoon lectures were pretty interesting, but I noticed that a LOT of people were falling asleep. The sleep deprivation is really starting to hit for many of us. Dr. D played “Shake It Off” during one of the breaks to help us wake up and shake the sleepiness off. I’d say it was about 50% effective.
As the day came to a close, I began working on my PSETs in the computer lab. Just as I started getting tired of writing, we were told that we could go see the moon through the telescope. Upon hearing this, everyone immediately ditched their work and walked upstairs. I was pretty underwhelmed by how the moon looked (my phone can do better), but I enjoyed having a short break from the usual hours of work.
I continued working on my PSETs for the remainder of the night, but I did momentarily get distracted by the ridiculous amazing t-shirt design that Emily and Gustavo made. At first, I was worried that they wouldn’t get any votes, but then Emily added “Afsana is the best” at the bottom, which definitely saved the design. There’s no way it won’t win now.
Overall, this day turned out to be quite eventful, even without any field trips or guest speakers. I still think it would have been better if Ben staged a dramatic heart attack in the middle of pre-dinner announcements, but I guess that’ll have to wait.
Hi reader! My name is Afsana and I’m a rising junior from NYC. In my free time, I enjoy writing, taking pictures of the stars, and going on walks. I’m planning on majoring in physics and minoring in philosophy in college. My time at SSP has been great so far, and I’m excited to make even more memories here!
