if day

% Hello readers! I’m writing in Matlab syntax today. Matlab is my only programming      % language, thus making it my favorite. Its concepts are fairly simple: % signals                  % comments, which is any writing not actually executed when the code is run. “If-then”    % statements are self-explanatory: if something is true, then go on with whatever is        % written in underneath the statement. If something is false, go onto “else” instead. &      % means  “and,” and | means “or.” (Bet you didn’t know the | key existed on the                  %  keyboard until just now :).) And the hardest part: “day” is your variable—you can        % decide if day = ‘Monday’, day = ‘Tuesday’, day = etc. That’s all you need. Here we go!

if day = Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday

Dreaming. Dreaming of running and talking and dancing and BEEP BEEP BEEP! That’ your alarm. Roll out of bed—room door is most likely open, Alice has already left, Iulia’s sitting on the couch, eating cereal out of a bowl. Don’t bother to make the bed—you’re on the bottom of the bunk bed, so you really should, but contacts first. Stumble over to the sink, toothbrushing-contacts-blinking at your reflection (should really sleep more, that’s what you always say), don’t want to deal with the clothes yet, sit down with a piece of bread. Nom nom nom (that’s an eating sound). Clothes next, slide your hand under your laptop on the floor, strap it lovingly into your backpack. Got your ID? Check the floor. Floor’s clear; “Bye Iulia!” Off you go.

end

if day = Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday

It’s sunny on your walk to Longwood Medical. As usual, you’ve forgotten your sunglasses, but as usual, that’s because if you wear them you’ll lose them. You’re alert now, at least—one needs to be, for appropriate jay-walking. Don’t get honked at, and don’t get run over: those are the rules. It actually takes more attention to jay walk without annoying anyone than just to wait for the stop lights. You walk through the park, say hi to the man on the bench. It’s a half an hour, and you’re begging for the air conditioning by the time you arrive.

else

It’s rainy, a bit, and you’ve forgotten your umbrella. Not surprising, really, and you don’t mind getting a little wet. The rain keeps your mind quieter, and you leap over puddles. You watch for the designs people that and their umbrellas wear.

end

if day = Friday

It’s Systems Club day. The Harvard Neurobiology Department comes together to hear someone speak; the presenter picks a research article relevant to their research to present (Journal Club), or they present their own research (Systems Club). This week, Systems Club is a special event: Dr. Bill Newsome has come to have a discussion about gating systems in neural networks. You get lost, of course, since it’s special and not in the usual room. You spot Dr. Margaret Livingstone descending the stairs with two post-docs, and sidle in silently behind her. She’s talking with one of the post-docs, and the other, Carlos, shoots a smile back at you. You smile back, keeping your footsteps quiet behind them. You’ve seen their research papers, especially Dr. Livingstone’s. You just met them in the flesh two weeks ago, and were focused on not staring.

It’s a journal club, not a seminar, Dr. Newsome reminds you all. No one’s using last names of course—all the PIs (Principal Investigators—the important people in charge of the labs) have known each other for years. So the talk runs long, frequently interrupted by questions, with suggestions about methods offered, with significance of the work discussed. Journal clubs are spaces for scientists to get input from other eminent scientists in their field. You listen, eyes wide open, the weight of accomplishment blurring your eyes. Breathe it in, squint, and refocus.

end

if day = Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday

“Hello-hello-hello-hello-hello” to everyone in the room. How-are-yous sometimes exchanged, usually everyone turns away. Stares at their laptop screen, centers themselves, draw inwards: What are the goals for the day, where was I yesterday, what am I doing right now. Clacking on keyboards, clicking of mice. Conversation in one part of the room, a few minutes pass: then everyone turns towards again, “hey, how are you?”

end

if day = Wednesday

David will come to lunch. Professor Conway has gone to fetch him, Galina has found the wheel-chair accessible entrance, Cleo is attending to any phone calls, and they and Mela have bought the sushi. We all assemble in David Hubel’s office, which is a room full of things. The plants are huge and reaching, and the table is bright with sunshine. If you play I-Spy on Dr. David Hubel’s desk, you can see a glass-filled rectangular solid. Inside there looks to be a penny, but it’s large and doesn’t show Lincoln. Instead it reads “Alfred Nobel,” and we wheel David in front of it. We eat sushi and discuss synesthesia, and neuroscience and family and food.

end

if day  = Wednesday

            if time = evening

           “You’re going to watch Dr. Who with us,” Kaitlin says, not quite looking at you. You grin at her as she pauses, and immediately takes back the sentence. “Well, you don’t have to, of course, though I just said you would. We, I mean Galina and I, thought it would be good…” We agree to one day a week, and why not make that day today? So instead of working out tonight, you go to the grocery store, help them make dinner, watch movies in their living room, and laugh.

           end

end

if day = Saturday | Sunday

Weekends are spent with roommates. You walk around Boston often, you sweat together in the heat. You carry food on your backs and in bags, and pick clothes off hangers for each other. You wait for stop lights and don’t, you argue about sneakers and wedges. You eat together often, and your presence echoes, eternally the “ladies,” crowding the sidewalk, two or three abreast, voices rising and falling with the conversation.

end

if day = Sunday

You’re talking with friends about your blog. Hey, have you talked about frat life? What if you did interviews? Helena says that MIT blogs too, so you rush to their page and read. “I’m waiting for you to finish,” Iulia says, and the pleasure is smooth and deep.

end

if day = always

You hope forever that you will have what you have right now. You have friends, a job you love, time, mentors, appreciation, exercise, food, family, ambition, contentment, movies, pressures, and love, love, and love. So many people who give so much, who walk with you, who take care of you, who lead you, who laugh with you, who. With a working body and a working mind, and challenges and mistakes. And learning, and hope, and thank you.

End.

% Questions and comments welcome as always :). Monica