It is 12:30 AM and we just finished a game of red or black after an intense final encounter with Yuvan and Brian. Red or black is a game of uncertainty. You must pick between the decks of cards that each person has and hope that you can pick the number of red cards that you called before. Yuvan called out that he could find 2 red cards when there were only two cards left on the table, a huge risk that would pay off.
Ritvik and I head back to our dorm and have quite a verbose conversation about anything between football to college to what our plan was for the next day. As we were talking, I started to notice how out of our control the next few months of our lives was going to be. We could not control if the protocol we made for the serial dilutions was going to work or not; we just hoped that following a similar process as Dr. Hall would work in the lab. We could not control our AP scores or what colleges we get accepted to, a reality that scares most of us. However, SSP allows us to embrace that uncertainty because in the lab things will not always be perfect and that is okay. We have learned to embrace a mentality that everything will be fine and just hope for the best.
Sunday provides a similar feeling because everything is unscheduled and there is uncertainty as what the day is going to look like. This Sunday was very relaxing with a trip to Target, Vons, and coffee shop right after lunch. We also decided the winner to the T-Shirt contest today. Afterwards we decided to play some tennis, basketball, and volleyball.
In a way, this uncertainty that Sunday brings has allowed me to grow even closer to all the people at SSP. I feel like I’ve known these people for all my life and the fact that we get to experience these six weeks together brings us even closer. We are all open to new ideas and excited to be here which allows me and our group to be who we truly are.
Hello everyone! I am Joe, and I am a rising senior at Saint Xavier High School in Cincinnati, Ohio. Apart from biology and chemistry, I play tennis for my school team, and I am involved in several community service activities such as mission trips and peer-tutoring. I look forward to the rest of the program and cannot wait for the rest of the bonds I will build with my peers at Purdue!