Analysis of a Vacation

    So it has been quite a while since I have written. I hope to begin to keep it up for longer this time. I have a lot of thoughts and this is a good way of getting them out. I have been traveling around the east coast this summer and have seen two very different ways of living.  I am also told that people like pictures so I will put a few pictures of my trips as well.

I was really tempted to put in a quarter.. but I figured that I am already older so it might make be 50 or so.. which would be a bummer.

    First I went to Boston for a research conference. The people that I met there were very high society and higher intelligence. It made me aspire to be ground breaking and look for novel ways of doing experiments and made me want to push the boundaries of where I can go in my research.  I met a group of people who are all at least somewhat leaders in their respective research fields and realized that though I am not yet where they are, it is not much of a stretch to see me one day be able to meet if not exceed their stations.  It was an inspiring realization for me, and I am looking forward to excelling in my research.

This is potentially one of the libraries in Cambridge should have taken more picture of Harvard. 

     After Boston, I went to Palm Beach, Florida.  This was a complete change of pace for me. Normally I am surrounded by literal genii.  I live in a college town and work in a research lab with one of the "young hot shot" advisers and the other graduate student in my lab would unarguably be selected as the smartest graduate student in our department. I am fortunate to work with people like this who are highly driven people who can push and inspire me to do better than I could do otherwise.  Conversely the atmosphere in Florida was not that.  It is not that I was surrounded by idiots (far from it), but they culture is just very different.  I want to call it a much more "free" culture, but I don't think that gives it justice. I was there for two weeks and was able to relax and have no worries, which makes it a great vacation.  The people I was around just did not fret about anything.  In their minds things get done when they get done and there is no knowing what will happen in a year, a month, a day, or even and hour in the future.  This was a radical concept to the scientific part of my brain which is very structured and plans my days, weeks, months, ect, in advance for me. On the other side though, this way of thinking has given me a new perspective on ways to deal with adversities and such which I am hoping will be a valuable asset for me in the future.  I love the people who I got to spend time with and those that I got to meet in Florida.

- C. Fletcher