Finding positivity in French fries…

And other ridiculous things…

Because after all, I am more me now, than when I got here

Have you ever just had one of those days where no matter what happens it just sucks? I try to be a positive person, but for the last few days that couldn’t be any further away from the truth. I couldn’t find that silver lining no matter how hard I looked. Ok, that’s the problem. I wasn’t really looking.

This all started Sunday. I spent last week at an end of the summer all of the interns present their summer research convocation in Minneapolis. It was a place where the question “where are you from?” has 3 meanings. A place where abbreviations were thrown around like footballs and small talk consisted of “where are you looking at for grad school?” I am not one to make friends easily, so for me stuff like this is basically 4 or 5 days of people not laughing at my awkward jokes. As far as jokes go, I have a lot. I am definitely one of those people that at first glance you would think takes nothing seriously. After 91 nanotech presentations, I finally understood what graphene was and was beyond ready to be home. By home I meant REAL home. That hot humid place in Oklahoma that I claim (maybe biased) to be the greatest place in the world. But alas I was back to Seattle for another week! So, there it was born my negative attitude. It couldn’t have come at a worse time!!! I have spent the last few days filling out surveys and questionnaires about my summer experience. In the right light, this summer like many things has had its shares of ups and downs, and for the most part the good has outweighed the bad. However, my negative attitude may have gotten the best of me. This morning I was extremely unpleasant. I was just being an “I hate this, I want to go home, spoiled brat.” I like to think this is out of character for me. All morning I sulked around lab preparing slides and samples. After I was finished, I went downstairs to wait for lunch. Matt had arranged a going away lunch for me and another undergrad with some of the lab group. Again, any other day this would be perfect. I really like the people in my lab group, and the French fries at the restaurant are delicious. But that negative mood!!! So, I am sitting at lunch still kind of sulking and then something just snapped. And there it was the silver lining. There were so many positive things that came out of this summer!!!! Then, I got back from lunch feeling much more joyful, and I check my email to see that my kind of but not really PI had edited my final paper. She had added to one section that the SPR results suggested that the mercapto blocking step was working efficiently (I realize this is technical jargon and I apologize, stay with me). I couldn’t help but laugh. This was a small yet important step that I hadn’t realized. I was so focused on the big picture I didn’t realize this little detail. So, goal : Focus on the positive no matter how small it may seem!

So, here is a list of positives that came from this summer!
- Meeting some WONDERFUL people
- Being able to sit outside in the middle of August in jeans and be comfortable
- Nutella ice cream
- Mercapto working efficiently
- “Holy Crap”
- A play about feminism, it’s a comedy. Obviously.
- Watching cheap and steep deals
- Fluorescence showing islanding
- FINDING SPOTS
- The plexera guys
- NESAC/Bio, all of them.
- $1.50 cheesecake
- FREE mango cheesecake!
- “ At least like nanofeelings, SEM that shit and we’ll see it”
- Meg’s MEG-SAMs
- Coolio mass
- Nkem’s sayings “fabulouso”
- Roger’s intense knowledge of all things Man V. Food
- Bible study with Lauren
- Heidi letting me complain about my day, lots of days
- Getting to know the other NNIN and GEM-SEC interns
- Tax free shopping in Portland
- “I would like a refreshing Arnold Palmer”
- Lots of laughter
- MEG SAMs working properly!!!!
- Fixing the leak in the SPR
- Learning a lot about surface analysis techniques
- Dominating the confocal microscope
- Desserts!!!
- Being a tourist
- Starting a blog
- Becoming addicted to Weeds, the show
- Becoming more confident
- Searching for the sound garden
- Celebrating the solstice
- Shoes that smell like BBQ
- BECOMING MORE OF MYSELF

There are plenty more. The good far outweighs the bad. The summer was a success!