Biology almost took over my life this week. I had a homework assignment due in class Monday, a lab write-up due Wednesday before our three and a half hour-long lab, an exam Thursday, and the lab practical Friday. On Tuesday, I didn’t go to HoCo because I felt like I needed to study. HoCo is one of my favorite parts of dorm life, and I can finally go now because it starts at 8:00 and I don’t have to be in bed at 8:15 anymore, but because of bio, I didn’t.
On Wednesday, after I’d made it through lab and studied for Thursday’s test for two hours, I decided not to let bio ruin all of my fun, so I popped into Beebe for tea time with my teammates. I only stayed for twenty or thirty minutes, but it was nice to interact with friends after a lonely, studious afternoon.
Sometimes I have so much schoolwork that I know it’s not all going to get done. I could’ve studied for my exam and lab practical for five more hours and still had more to learn. At some point, I have to accept that I know what I know, and I should close my laptop and go do something fun.
Thursday night, I woke up at 11:50 p.m. and went downstairs to the Red (Taylor’s Version) release party. Kate, the first floor RA, had set up red lights in the living room and a countdown to midnight on the projector, and the crowd had demolished a selection of red snacks (red velvet cupcakes, watermelon, and chewy Chips Ahoy). When the album appeared on Kate’s Spotify account, we all listened to the ten-minute version of All Too Well. I WhatsApped Caroline, who’d woken up at 5:00 a.m. in London, and we texted each other the most dramatic lyrics in all caps. I almost didn’t go to the party, but what’s the point of college if you don’t get emotional over the release of a new Taylor Swift album with a bunch of people you may or may not know? (And the next day, my workout group listened to Red for our entire hour-long erg.)
Low-quality pic, high-quality release party
The coolest part of my week came Friday morning: my coach sent a message in our shoutout chain that my reporting had been on WBUR’s Morning Edition! I’d put a short spot together about rising sea levels for my internship. I didn’t know that my supervisor had shared it with all the New England public radio stations—Muller’s shoutout was the first I’d heard of my piece being broadcast. My mom called me on my way to lunch and told me she’d heard me on the radio. As I suffered through my lab practical that afternoon, I kept reminding myself that I’m not trying to be a bio whiz, I’m trying to be a journalist, and I was on NPR that morning!
This week is going to be another busy one. I have a project proposal due Wednesday and a rough draft due Thursday, and an orientation call for my abroad program and a guest lecture on Zoom. I’m scheduling meals with friends around my workouts, classes, and work shifts, because no matter how busy we are, we’ve still gotta eat. And no matter how much work we have, we’ve still gotta do some fun things.