Category: 2017

I am not the kind of girl who sulks

August 12, 2017

I say repeatedly to myself, to the tune of Bebe Rexha’s ‘Bad Bitch’, buried up to my glasses in Jane Austen’s words.

I would like to think that I am not the kind of girl who sulks, but I am.

I am the kind of girl who throws herself into her work, who gets upset and cries in the shower when there’s no more work left to do, and takes a long time to get over things.

I am also the kind of girl who is strong.

Everyone has different ways of dealing with pain, grief, disappointment, etc. There are some that are unhealthy, but for the most part coping mechanisms are the way that we get through life. For example, I tend to feel down for a few days about negative things that happen in my life, and there are those who would say that that isn’t productive or isn’t helping me, but it is just how I process things. You have to walk across lanes of traffic to get to the other side of the street; dealing with negativity is much the same way. No one is the same; no one’s brains work exactly the same. We go through a neural process called pruning in early childhood, which is entirely shaped by our own unique experiences, and I am of the opinion that that’s a large part of the reason that every human is unique. Throughout the rest of our lives, this means that we all have a unique perspective on situations both positive and negative, and as long as you are not hurting yourself or others, none of these perspectives are bad.

Negativity doesn’t define us. How we react to the things that get us down is what defines us. Whatever it is that you do, however it is you survive, make sure it’s worthy of who you are.

 

Postscript:

I know summer isn’t ‘technically’ over, but I felt the need to write about this for a lot of reasons. I’ll consider this my official return to blogging for the rest of the school year, since I don’t post in the summer. I hope you all  have enjoyed this post, and your regularly scheduled completely irrelevant picture (of the Trevi fountain in Rome)! Please feel free to let me know what you think, and/or what to write about next.

happiness: a constitutional right

May 5, 2017

Finals is a tough time. Today I woke up and I knew I wanted to write something, but no original ideas have really been coming to me. The focus on memorizing the steps of a factorial ANOVA statistical test have been really taking it out of me, and although I’m almost done, I’ve been struggling to stay motivated. When stressing about things like finals, it’s also really easy to start stressing about seemingly unrelated issues.

My first year in Richmond is drawing to a close, and because of this I’ve been reflecting a lot. I was making the decision to transfer here a year ago, waiting on tenterhooks for my acceptance letter and dreading the reaction my parents would have when I told them I wanted to uproot my life and move to a city that doesn’t always have the best reputation for safety. When I finally got my acceptance letter, their reaction was not what I hoped it would be, and I had set the bar low. They didn’t want me to transfer, but after a summer of coaxing they agreed–as long as I kept my grades up and got involved in research (which was my best argument for transferring, and not a false one either).

Now, a year later, I’ve been thinking a lot about whether or not this was the right decision for me, and although there have been a few hardships, the answer is an overwhelmingly enthusiastic yes. I’ve never been happier than I am now, living in a crappy apartment outside the city, commuting every day to hole up in the library and study for my exams. I couldn’t be more excited for the next two years of undergrad, with a beautiful apartment lined up in the city and friends I love. I know I wouldn’t be where I am today if I hadn’t ignored my parents advice to ride it out and move elsewhere for grad school. Thinking about my life, sometimes I can’t even believe what a success the move has been so far, or how grateful I am to have had the opportunity to do something like this.

The moral of the story is this: chase your own happiness. It’s not always easy, it may not pay off immediately, and you will get discouraged along the way, but it is always worth it. I know I spout a lot of crap like this, but I can’t overstate how much it’s improved my life to be happy like this. It’s like my life has finally started for real, and I’m so excited.

P.S. Richmond is a great city for art; please enjoy this completely unrelated photo of my favorite mural I’ve seen so far!

 

Finding Solace in Science

April 22, 2017

Tomorrow (or I guess today, considering it’s after midnight as I start writing this) is a very important day. It’s Earth Day for one, and it’s also the March for Science in Washington, DC. Since I live in Northern Virginia when I’m living with my parents, I will of course be taking part.

Broadly speaking, science has been a hugely significant part of my life. From the time I was in the seventh grade taking my first biology class to now, as a real life scientist writing a real life research proposal, science has helped me to thrive.

When I went through a period of severe insecurity around the time I turned thirteen, learning about metabolic processes and anatomy helped me to respect my body for the perfect result of millions of years of evolution that it is.

When I started learning about philosophy the first year of high school, I started to search for what I believed in; maybe I still don’t know, but the Laws of Thermodynamics sure explained a lot when I started to think about it.

When I started to learn about the details of genetics that same year, I made the first (of what would become many) serious decision of what I wanted to be when I grew up. Having been a kid that was good but not great at everything else I tried, it was the first time I was truly skilled at something. I would later learn that the real skill I had discovered was simply pattern recognition, but being good at biology made me feel like a real person, like I truly existed in the world.

When I took my first psychology class two years later, I found my calling. There are those who would say that psychology is a ‘soft science’, or that it isn’t as important as, say, physics or chemistry, but the fact is that all of the other sciences come together in psychology. To run, read, and understand an fMRI, you have to understand more than basic chemistry and at least simple physics, not to mention brain biology and how they all interact.

Don’t get me wrong, literature and music have also given me an unimaginable amount of gifts. I’ve always known that. Now though, as a student and as a researcher, I look back and finally fully understand all that science has given me. It has given me confidence, taught me respect, frustrated me, educated me, robbed me of sleep, and most importantly, given me a purpose in my life. Some people find solace in going to church,  in praying, or meditating. Over the years, I have always found my solace in science.

I’m sure to many people this will seem grossly oversimplified, reductionist, and all other manners of mechanical, clinical, et cetera. But to me science is none of those things; there are so many theories and ideas and explanations that the way they can be combined to form ideologies and paradigms is artistic, complex, and completely the opposite of oversimplified. Tomorrow, or more accurately later today, I will be marching so that the next little girl like me will have the same or (hopefully) better opportunities than me, that she will be able to find herself in theories the same way I did, and that she will make the world better for it, the same way I hope to.

PS. Enjoy the picture I took at the last march on Washington I attended, the Women’s March. It’s not quite related to the topic, but I like it.

Life & Priorities: Things That Get in the Way

March 23, 2017

It’s been a long time since I wrote a post, and I feel bad about that. But also, I don’t. It’s been busy the past few weeks; I had the flu, then I started real work in the lab, it’s midterm time, and my wisdom teeth are breaking the skin (which, if you’re unfamiliar, means a lot of pain and trouble sleeping).

I feel bad because I made a commitment to write here. I don’t feel bad because life got in the way; sometimes that’s a good thing. In recent weeks I’ve also been doing a lot of thinking (easy to do when you have the flu and can barely manage to get up, let alone do homework). I had seen some old friends before I got sick, and they reminded me of how life used to be–and in turn, how much it has changed. In high school, I had a lot of friends. I was a social butterfly, and that had it’s pros and cons. I once had someone essentially end a close friendship with me because, “I had changed”. In reality, I don’t think the fundamentals of my personality have changed in years (As a psych major, I don’t say this lightly; I know that people do in fact change their personalities, I just feel that mine has been very stable over time).

Now I am in college, and while I might be almost unrecognizable as a person from the girl many of my high school friends first met during our freshman year, it’s not because the fundamental aspects of my personality have changed. I am still an incredibly social person, very agreeable and conscientious, and a little bit neurotic about some things. I’m always running a tiny bit late, I still put little to no effort into controlling my hair, and I’m an avid reader.

What has changed since that time is how I organize my priorities. In high school, I easily earned As and Bs and graduated in the top 25% of my class. I didn’t try that hard, I didn’t study that much, and frankly–outside of math class–it all came very easily to me. At that time, I focused more on being social; I dated, I went out with my friends (although nothing truly wild happened), and I played sports. College changed that for me. I still have friends that I hang out with, but working hard and studying have really become focus points for me. Because I never had to study that hard in high school–or at least because I felt I didn’t–I had never really learned study habits, so the first thing I really learned in college was not chemistry or psychology, it was how to really study. Especially once I transferred, I started focusing on school even more. There are reasons for this, but that’s a story for another time.

It’s true that people change, and in fact personalities can and most likely will change over time. It goes deeper than that though; sometimes it’s not the actual person that changes, but how they prioritize the things they have going on in their lives. ‘Do what makes you happy’ is a famous sort of saying, and for good reason. Different things make different people happy, but that doesn’t mean the same things will make you happy your entire life. These days, earning good grades and working towards a successful future is what makes me feel fulfilled. I had to grow up really fast, and it changed the way I see the world.

My point is that sometimes life gets in the way of priorities, and sometimes priorities get in the way of life. Happiness though, your happiness, is more important than anything.

I’m Back! An Update

February 4, 2017

So first of all, I want to apologize for taking such a long time off. Typically I like to write in my university library, surrounded by the smell of coffee brewing and the friendly sounds of other students, but over the winter I was at home, and didn’t get as much chance to write.

I’ve added some new factors to my identity over the past few weeks: I am now a real-live scientist who works in a lab, a new member of the honors college, and a name on the dean’s list. I’ve never been more proud of myself than I am right now, and that’s a brand new feeling for me. I wish I could talk about the research we are conducting in the lab right now–we’ve had some seriously interesting results–but since it isn’t published yet, I think  I should withhold. Once the results become public, I’ll certainly share as it is pretty interesting for those of us interested in psychology. This semester, I will also be beginning my own independent research project through the lab, which I am immensely excited about, and will possibly post updates about as I go.

Another recent event I participated in was the Women’s March on Washington in Washington, DC. It was an amazing experience; I have never felt so much a part of something in my life, and I can’t wait to participate in the Scientists March on Washington in April. The Trump administration has made many decisions that are unbelievably dangerous not just for America but also for the world, and I firmly believe in standing up for myself and others. As the child of two immigrants, a woman, and a scientist, remaining silent would be akin to betraying myself and my identity.

On a less serious note, I know everyone thinks new year’s resolutions are overrated and no one ever keeps to them, but I wanted to share mine! The most healthy one I made was to drink more water; I’m constantly dehydrated because I never drink enough, and this year I want to take better care of myself in that aspect of my life. I also want to keep up the work ethic that I managed to incite in myself last semester, as the taste of success that I got as a result was and is the best feeling ever.

Anyway, the new semester has begun and I am so excited to begin this new journey, as well as share it with those of you who are listening. I’d like to point out that if any of you reading this need someone to talk to for any reason at all, especially now, please feel free to talk to me. I will help to the best of my abilities. I really think that love and support is the key to surviving times like these, and I want to embody those things as much as I can.