Senior Year

Wow, senior year already?

A tradition at NCSSM is a ceremony called Convocation. All of the students dress in their best dresses, shirts and ties; and the faculty and staff dress in their academic regalia. We all gather in the auditorium and listen to speakers mark the official beginning of the year. All very formal. At my junior convocation, I remember feeling energized and challenged to do my best at a new school, but this year was different.

We had an amazing speaker, Geeta Patel, who spoke to us about finding what motivates and pulls us; everyone looked great; we had a fun filled reception; and pretty much everything was the same. Except afterwards, when the seniors gathered around with smudged make up and pajamas, we said, “that was our last convocation.” And then there was silence.
We finally realized that we really are seniors. And we finally realized what being a senior meant. We now had juniors that looked up to us, the stress of college applications, the excitement of near-freedom, and many other feelings. But we also had a sorrowful feeling. We realized that from here on out, everything and everyday would be a last.

Our conversation continued,
“When we graduate, we technically don’t have to go to school anymore.”
“Can you remember when we didn’t have to go to school? When we were 4?”
“No.”

We realized that pretty much our whole lives were related to school and the feeling that technically we wouldn’t have to go anymore was in a way, scary! Of course all of the high-achieving NCSSM students will continue their educations, but it was still different. From here on out, everything was our choice. We chose which school to go to, what to major in, what to do during the summers, everything!

We then went on trying to cheer ourselves up. After all, we were now SENIORS!!! I hope senior year brings so much more fun and so many more new discoveries. I hope that the happy feelings will out number the nervous feelings. And I also hope, that this year is the longest year ever.

RECAP_Afterwards

Although it has been a while since RECAP has ended, I have still been in the research process. Part of the program is writing a full research paper and now that I finished my part in the lab, I have to write up my results. I have been writing my paper, which has been kind of stressful, but I am learning the whole process.

Another part of RECAP was presenting our findings at the end of the 3 weeks. This presentation was in front of the other students, parents, and professors. I had never done anything like this before so I was extremely nervous. As I made my slides I didn’t know what parts to emphasize and which to just mention. As I tried to think of what to say my mind was always blank. Before the actual symposium I had a couple practice rounds but on the actually day, my hands would not stop shaking. I knew I didn’t want to read off of a prepared speech, so I only had ideas in my head. When I went up to do my presentation, I felt unusually calm. Then I turned around to face my audience... I wasn’t calm anymore. But I had to start anyways.

As I started the nerves started to go away. After my presentation it felt so rewarding. I had answered all of my questions and although the nerves showed in my speech because I had talked fast, I had delivered everything I had intended to. I am not sure if I enjoyed presenting, but I know that the feeling afterwards was very rewarding.

After everything, I learned that I really enjoy doing research and working in the lab. I also learned that one question leads to another and once you start, there are endless questions you want to learn more about. I want to keep researching in college so that has also been an important factor in my college search.