Times they are a changin'

As my days in this wonderful city draw to a close I am filled with many emotions. I love this place. I fully intend to live here once again in the near future. New York is an amazing city and anyone who hasn't been here should come post haste. No where else could I walk out of my door and have only a short walk to so many things to do.

I've made so many wonderful friends. Everyone in this program is incredibly intelligent and so much fun to be around. It's nice to have conversations with people my age that do not have anything to do with celebrities or pop culture. It's not often that one is surrounded by so many splendid and eclectic personalities at one time. I've made friends that I hope to keep in touch with for always.

I've also made quite a few discoveries about myself. Academia is the field for me. I can say this with confidence. I fully intend to get a phd in geoscience. Hopefully more specific to meteoritics, as I have fallen in love with rocks that fall from the sky. As an undergrad in geology I am constantly told to look at the ground I walk on, but never to look to the sky. So many questions hang above our heads, stuck up into the stars, that we never even think about. I hope to pluck a few of them down in my time and chizzle away at some answers.

Several things have become quite apparent to me:
*I must travel. Everywhere. As much as I possibly can.
*I must learn new languages. As many as I possibly can.
*I need to read. A lot. As much as I possibly can.
*Television is disgusting. With the exception of some public programming and of course the discovery channel.
*I really enjoy wine and cheese.
*I hate the metal poles in subway trains.
*Just because I step on a grate in the street does not mean I will fall in.
*I love school.
*I love Central Park.
*I love museums.
*I love ethnic foods.
*Etc.. etc... etc... as much as I possibly can.

Of course I miss home. I miss my family and my friends and grass that was not planted with the soul purpose of breaking up concrete. I'm glad I can go home and hopefully have two weeks of actual summer time when I can just be lazy and relax.

My presentation went well and I really enjoyed giving my talk to the museum staff and other interns. It was a great feeling of accomplishment that everything has fallen together in the last few days. The hard work paid off and now I've got some rather astounding results. My paper is underway and hopefully will be finished by late August... but let's not get ahead of ourselves...

I hope everyone reading this has had a summer as wonderful as I. I hope that if you haven't had a summer so wonderful that you may take this as a wake up call. If you don't love life than you are doing something incorrectly. You need to make a change, because there are so many things in this world to love. I suggest you up and move to New York for a few months, as this is one of the best experiences I've ever had. You need to leave Kentucky, or wherever you may be situated, and get a breath of fresh air.

And with that I end my ramblings.


Love,
Chelsea