The Beginning of the End

Today, my day began much earlier than it did yesterday. Although I had hoped to finish my lab report last night, I soon became too tired to continue writing it. Instead, I decided to go to sleep and continue working in the morning. I woke up, quickly got ready, and went to study with Maria, Cecilia, and Adela in the West Commons. 

Crystal and I

After studying in the morning, I met up with Crystal around 1 PM and we continued our progress on the report. Most of the lab report we needed to work on could be done individually but it helped to have each other there in case either one of us has questions. Once we finished most of our individual parts, I went down to have dinner with Maria and Adela. 

Over our usual plate of pasta and salad, we talked about how fast time has gone by. It hard to believe we are already in the last week we will spend together here in Chicago. Although for most of the trip I found the course material and workload overwhelming, by asking for help and studying hard I have gotten used to and even begun to enjoy the difficulty of my course. I am now at that time where I look around and think about how much I am going to miss everything here, mostly the friends I have made and the benefits of having everything I need to be located within the same general vicinity. It saddens me to think we will be leaving in just a few days and I will most likely never again see them but until that day we decided to focus on the bright side of things and started to brainstorm somethings we could do on our last day together. 

After our brainstorming at dinner, Crystal and I got back together to finalize our lab report and to complete an extra credit assignment that went along with the report. Although time-consuming, this lab report was much simpler than the first one that was assigned which I am very thankful for as we also have another project coming up soon. 

Our Thangaraj study room

Speaking of which, after I finished working with Crystal I headed up to the study area in my house to join Linnea and Anna who had finished their lab report early and had already began working on our project. We had already settled on the topic for our poster earlier in the week. We would present on the progression of medical treatments from the plague pandemic that occurred in the 1300s to the rare cases that happen to this day. 

The progress they had already made reminded me of another thing I will miss, working with people who care. Even though I go to a school where most students care about their grades not many of them care about actually learning. Here at UChicago, I have yet to encounter such a person. 

Tonight we made a lot of progress with our projects for lab and are almost finished with them. This brings me a lot of satisfaction but also reminds me there is not much time left of this trip. As mentioned earlier though, I will focus on making the most out of the last few days, not on the sadness of goodbyes, at least not yet.