What’s up y’all, it’s ya boy Abheek reporting from SSP Astrophysics @ UNC. Today was my birthday, so I laid awake for hours last night on the phone with family and friends. I must have been exhausted when I went to sleep because, to my surprise, my alarm rang at 8:59 this morning instead of 7:59. So, I then threw on some clothes, asked Dr. Ice to watch me on my tense trek to Phillips Hall, and zoomed there nearly as fast as the revered Lightning McQueen. While the stress of being late was scary, the extra sleep was instrumental in the success of my day. Upon my arrival at Phillips Hall, my classmates were still in the process of retrieving their computers, so I don’t believe I was interrupting when I walked into class late. I soon forgot about the incident as the lecture captured my attention. It highlighted some fascinating quirks of Python that I became infatuated with as someone who loves computer science. Towards the end of the lecture, I hastily finished up a problem set that I was unable to finish last night due to the changed time of our (extremely cool) observation.
After the first and final lecture for the day, we were given free time to vibe around the campus in our limited 50-meter-meteor-strike-size radius and play some Spikeball. I hung out with my homie James for a bit and we had a deep talk about the life and character of the typical rural Nebraskan geezer. At 3:45 pm, the real day started as our group congregated in preparation to invade the shops of Franklin Street. After roaming around, we stumbled upon a charming milk tea shop where I found myself overwhelmed with choices. I ended up getting an unlucky tasting Creme Brulee tea with cheese foam which, misleadingly, did not have boba. We then went to Target to stock up on the good stuff and I copped tons of sustenance for the late night study sessions in the days to come. Once everyone had finished up at Target, we made a brief stop at the dorms then split up for dinner. A few friends and I headed to Chimney for some banger Indian food where I was able to practice my Hindi. After speaking a bit about Babytron’s realism and how it relates to Diljit Dosanjh, we met up in Phillips Hall for our second CS problem set, where I tried to tackle all the challenges but alas failed due to the existence of 11:59. The time crunch was further hindered by the prevalence of a certain conundrum in which my sister had Doordashed me some birthday cookies (which was illegal but if you see this Dr. Ice it was not my fault) which made for a nice treat for all the studious SSPers in the lounge.
Today was overall both a great day and a great birthday, and I’d like to give a shoutout to all the real ones who made it so special.
Hi! My name is Abheek and I am from St. Louis, Missouri. I have always been drawn to astronomy and astrophysics, spending late nights as a child watching the stars. With time, I built this from a general interest to a more directed fervor, participating in numerous competitions such as Science Olympiad, Science Bowl, and USAAAO. Alongside astrophysics, computer science has always been at the forefront of my academic development. This combination of astrophysics and computer science made SSP Astrophysics the perfect summer opportunity, and the people at UNC have built a diverse and cooperative community that brings me back to why I love these sciences so much.
