Because our class is a two-week intensive bootcamp of science-techniques-that-you-should-probably-know-and-would-probably-be-useful-but-no-one-just-sits-you-down-and-tells-you-these-things, we have a different instructor every day and sometimes, their grad students or post docs come and sit in on the class. Thus, there are occasionally new faces. And then, sometimes, there are old faces. Today, I spent much of my free time wondering who this one girl in the class was and how I knew her. I didn't actually ponder this for a long stretch of time because the lecture was pretty interesting and I was mostly engrossed in that, but every time we had a break, I would look over and wonder, "Where have I met this person before?" I correctly assumed that she was a post-doc in the lecturer's lab and that she had been a grad student in my undergrad chem department. I also knew her name started with an E and that she had probably been my TA at some point, but as I wracked my brains trying to figure it out, I realized, that, I just couldn't. I enlisted Kelsey's help, and although he had nothing to offer (and rightly called me a creeper), I couldn't shake the feeling that I knew this person somehow.
It wasn't that she had especially striking features or remembered me or anything. But I continued to have this nagging feeling that whatever context I had seen her in before was not the context here, so thus, something didn't belong.
So I went through all my classes, dismissed the classes that Kelsey and I had together (which was a surprising lot, considering that our interests are pretty far apart), and listed the TAs of every class I had and at last, AT LAST(!), figured out that she had been my junior year Chemical Biology TA. How ironic that I should see her again during my Chemical Biology bootcamp when it was that class that inspired me to take up research and go to grad school. So, though I didn't go to any of the "TA help sessions" and you gave me one of the worst science grades I received during undergrad, thank you, E, for being a part of my class that changed the trajectory of my life and led me here, where I know I belong.
It wasn't that she had especially striking features or remembered me or anything. But I continued to have this nagging feeling that whatever context I had seen her in before was not the context here, so thus, something didn't belong.
So I went through all my classes, dismissed the classes that Kelsey and I had together (which was a surprising lot, considering that our interests are pretty far apart), and listed the TAs of every class I had and at last, AT LAST(!), figured out that she had been my junior year Chemical Biology TA. How ironic that I should see her again during my Chemical Biology bootcamp when it was that class that inspired me to take up research and go to grad school. So, though I didn't go to any of the "TA help sessions" and you gave me one of the worst science grades I received during undergrad, thank you, E, for being a part of my class that changed the trajectory of my life and led me here, where I know I belong.
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