Hello again! Lots has happened since I last wrote, but not a lot that I can tell you officially right now. Let’s just say that I’ve been interviewing for research positions where I can do my senior thesis this summer and the upcoming academic year.
One of the benefits of being abroad this semester was that I actually had a sizable chunk of time available to devote solely to research “applications.” I say applications, but the thesis lab search process is more of cold calling. More like cold emailing, where I spend hours pouring scientific papers, trying to understand new subfields of labs I find interesting and finding their work both dazzling and dazing at the same time. And then after another hour crafting the perfect email, it’s on to the next one. It’s not an easy process. You really have to care about it and put yourself on the line. It takes a good deal of initiative and self-motivation to spend four hours crafting an email and hit send with the possibility there might not even be a response. Then, you get to go on to the next one! Furthermore, going off campus for my senior thesis is definitely not the easiest path. But my work at the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center last summer: getting to meet patients, wonderful kids, and doctors managing and overcoming diabetes, has both inspired and pushed me to do my project in an area I’m really passionate about: diabetes research.
Luckily for me, Boston has some of the best diabetes centers in the world! It’s wonderful to have access to a city with such a thriving and driven science community. It looks like things are finally starting to fall in place, and I couldn’t be more excited about where I’m headed! I’m going to hold off on details until next week, when things are finalized. But let’s just leave it for now that there are some big changes coming up soon, and I can’t wait to take you along for the ride!
A host, of golden daffodils/ Beyond the lake, beneath the trees/ Fluttering and dancing in the breeze
Meanwhile, I’ll leave you with some pictures from this weekend. I took a day trip to the north and visited the aesthetically lovely Fredriksborg Castle. Fredriksborg is located along a lake, and it has a well-manicured garden in the back just starting to come into bloom. The inside of the castle is a walk through Danish history, and each room I passed through was a little newer than the previous one. I also visited Tivoli, the pristine Danish amusement park right in the heart of Copenhagen. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.
Up close at Fredriksborg. “If you have built your castles in the sky, that is where they should be. Now put the roots under them.” ~ H.D. Thoreau
Magnificent flowers at Tivoli
Ever lovely yours,
Eleanor