Mazel Tov! (first week)

And there we sat, gathered together in a room engulfed by a seeping feeling of fortuity. We are the lucky lot. A pastiche of well variegated dispositions from 3 institutions (ASU, Rice, and UTEP), a range of countries, states, cultures, majors, whims, preferences, and song choices. We weren’t tethered by the variation we embraced it, and as is typical of academics we found the common ground. We only needed 2 days and 1 night to make indelible memories, we dined together, learned of each other, enacted fantastic moments (both in pictures and in mind), rode the train, and like the fate of warriors we found Valhalla, ferried on the celestial beds of the Valkyrie we sat in the company of greats as we admired the “pillars of ties”, a testament to the countless doctors that owe their achievements to the muse that came from Odin’s elixir on days when they had a mental block. We visited Valhalla for research purposes and I reckon it constitutes an experiment if we were mixing chemicals. And with this, orientation worked to give us an overarching purpose, goals, sense of support, safety training, and an anchor— a form of certainty in the imminent unchartered. Soon we bade farewell to students from ASU and UTEP, sending them forth into the oncoming process of great learning. We met our mentors and got a glimpse of what the coming weeks held. We are enchanted by our prospects for the coming 10 weeks and fascinated by the privilege of working with brilliant people.

Soon the scales will fall from our eyes and the real tasks will begin. In my first week I learnt where my lab is, I met the other people I’ll work with, and the nuances of my lab. My first week culminated with me sitting in for a meeting with my faculty host, in which grad students presented results from the projects they were working on. It was a truly humbling moment, any trace of froideur was absolved as I stared into the vastness of my oblivion, but I learnt quickly to replace my intimidation with a readiness to learn as much as possible in the next ten weeks.

My name is Ifeoluwa Adebiyi, my faculty host is Dr. Naomi Halas, and my mentor is Dr. Oara Neumann; and if there’s anything the first week has taught it is that I will be learning a lot in the coming weeks, not just in research but also how other people work, the routines of an actual lab, and how to interact in various settings. Here’s to a summer of learning!!