Hello Blog,
As the name implies, this is the full last week of classes for the fall semester. Thanksgiving break was really late this year, so the semester is rapidly coming to a close. During Thanksgiving break I went home to spend time with my family. I am usually a huge proponent of the post-Thanksgiving meal walk, but it was raining the entire day. Never fear, though, because the kids table (who are now all 20 year olds) came up with the brilliant idea to walk to the local movie theater and see Wicked armed with umbrellas. I truly cannot think of a better way to spend a post-Thanksgiving food coma than at the movies. On the topic of food, I am a huge fan of Wellesley dining’s take on Thanksgiving because there is always a feast in every dining hall the week before Thanksgiving. I am a believer that stuffing is the best Thanksgiving food, and Wellesley’s stuffing does not disappoint.
Playing games with my family at home
In terms of the semester, classes are obviously finishing up course material, and organizations are also preparing for their final events. For me, that means preparing for my chamber music society concert. I’m in a string quartet this year, and we’re working on the first three movements of the Borodin String Quartet No. 2, which is such a quintessential fall piece to me. Fun fact: Borodin was an organic chemist in addition to being a composer of classical music. I’m also preparing for my “jury”, which is the final for my music seminar where we play what we’ve been working on this semester for the relevant music faculty members. I’m also preparing for my final for analytical chemistry, which is your standard test. My final for my biochemistry Calderwood (public writing) seminar is to write a faculty research grant proposal on an original research question.
First chamber music society concert!
Finally, I’ve been spending a lot of time on my thesis. A thesis is an independent research project that seniors at Wellesley can carry out in any discipline. I have friends doing theses in art history, political science, physics, sociology, and more! I had a friend who did a joint thesis in economics and music focused on Taylor Swift’s album rerecordings, and now she’s in law school studying intellectual property law. My thesis is in chemistry, and I’m studying how the dynamics of DNA change when you introduce a cancerous lesion. I’ve already collected most of my data, so now I am writing full-time. That means I have spent many a night “lost in the sauce” of academic papers. I’ll also be on campus during Wintersession (the couple weeks in January before the spring semester starts) to continue working on my thesis. It’s crazy to think that when I turn in my thesis, that will be my last semester at Wellesley…
Until next time,
Jade <3