It has been way too long since I wrote a blog post, but thankfully Riley’s consistent procrastination can ease my guilt a bit. Everyone understands what it’s like to be busy and exhausted. In that state, writing out your witty thoughts so anyone who wishes to can read them on the internet is just not something you feel up to doing. So now, naturally after waking up at 5:30 (yes, for anyone who doesn’t know me, I do mean a.m.) on a Saturday I am sitting here thinking of how waking up at 5:30 really does open up my schedule, and I have time to write.
I have had a ridiculously difficult time this semester getting into a routine, and in ways am still not really able to manage it. On a weekly basis, I have three problem sets, a lab report, and a 30-40 multiple choice question online quiz. Of course, all three problem sets (the most time consuming portion of my weekly homework) are due on Friday. Of course, the professors’ lectures are consistently behind the homework material. Of course, this means that one can either decide to wait until further lectures have been administered (making the weekend an enormous length of time in which nothing can be accomplished) or one can spend the weekend trying to teach oneself the material (as I do in the case of stats, because I simply cannot, despite my best efforts, pay attention for more than half of a lecture. I pride myself on my focusing/paying attention abilities, and I really just can’t do this one.)
Anyway, so you spend the weekend taking four times as long on some homework as you should and avoiding the rest of it and by the time the week rolls around you realize how very much you need to do and how very little time you have to do it. Naturally, this means you skip your discussion classes Tuesday morning because a) they are not required, b) in the case of the harder class (stats) they post the discussion section assignment online, and c) you really would like an extra three hours that morning to get things done, like PChem and lab reports, and maybe sleeping if you could do that.
So aside from busy weeks full of homework and angst-y weekends full of purposeful procrastination, there are some other things going on. As I mentioned some time ago, it is currently try-frantically-to-get-a-co-op-position time. I’ll be honest, I sent in a lot of applications and received a lot of rejections, and each one seriously made me feel like a loser. I looked at some of the people being accepted for interviews, and knew that I was a harder worker, a less shy person, or better at ChemE academically than they were, and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it. It’s not that I don’t like the other ChemEs, they are all fantastic people and I sincerely want them to receive the best co-op positions they can, but I was deluded by my jealousy into thinking it was unfair. Maybe it was unfair, but I shouldn’t have gotten all pouty and two-year-old-y about it. (Really though, after 13 fairly impersonal rejection emails or complete lacks of response knowing interviews were already conducted, I don’t think you would be a very happy camper either.)
But all that was a few weeks ago, and last week the angels sang a bit and I was accepted for two interviews. The first was with a guy named Keith from Air Products, who has been working there since he was a teenager, because he did the co-op program and is a young’un (like me. His birthday is actually the day before mine.) I met him at the networking event and, because I was pretty late due to band, I ended up having an uninterrupted half hour with him and two co-op students from last fall. The interview went really well (I am “very easy to talk to”x2), but he did tell me that was really impressed with the caliber of applicants this year. I had a later interview, and he said usually he would have a couple people in mind who were a cut above the rest by the time he got to me, but everyone was just so good he hadn’t been able to do that more than once. He also said they have accepted as many as 5 co-op students before, and there were only 8 people on the interview schedule (though he may have added more.)
The second was Tom, from Shire Human Genetic Therapies. Due to lots of flight delays, he got to Cornell 20 minutes into my interview time, and I was supposed to be his third interview. Luckily he still gave me the entire 30 minutes, but I think he was so wound up from being on a plane and whatnot that he really needed to talk. And talk he did. I chimed in as often as I could, and I think I came across as being knowledgeable about the biopharm industry for someone my age and experience level. Also, when I mentioned my interest in scale-up and plant development, he was enthusiastic that if they chose a co-op who was interested in those things, they could definitely get him or her involved with them. Overall, this interview went well too (we kept talking all the way back to the waiting room, and only ended because of time.)
Now, it is a waiting game. I’ve submitted my resume and cover letters, done the best I could do at my interviews, and there is nothing more I can do. Decisions from employers are due by March 9, so in less than a week I should have some more information. So, I guess a big question is: which one do I want? I know I shouldn’t be too terribly optimistic and think I will be offered both, but if I were, which one do I go with? Before I met with the guy from Air Products, I was Shire all the way. After I met with the guy from Air Products, I was completely torn 50/50. After meeting with the guy from Shire, I know that is really where my heart wants to be. The position is in pharmaceuticals, the field I want to go in, and that I sort of feel I must go in if I ever want to be able to move back to Seattle (which I do.) It’s located near Boston, which is a place I would be really excited about living. It’s also the company’s first time taking on a co-op student, and, as such, I think it will be much more easily tailored to the co-op’s interests.
And if I don’t get offered either? The process of searching continues, but it will be with a LOT more help from co-op and career services. They have a 100% success rate of finding something, as long as the student in question is willing to step outside their comfort zone with respect to technical skills and is also willing to go to any location. I hope it doesn’t come to that, because I really like having things of this sort planned out far in advance. We will see what happens, though.
What else is going on in my life? I’ve become quite a bit more social, and may start playing squash on a weekly basis. More gossip-y, my somewhat recently declared facebook official relationship is going well. The distance is difficult at times, usually when things slow down so you have enough time to think about it, but not unmanageable. For Valentine’s Day, Niko mailed me homemade truffles. Oh. My. God. If the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, a way to this girl’s heart is through chocolate. Fucking delicious homemade chocolate. (In case you’re curious, in honor of Valentine’s Day, one of my gift offers was a creative writing piece on the topic of his choosing, and I am to write an elaborate plan cats would use to take over the world.) We are, as you might have guessed, a funny cards couple, which is basically code for freaking awesome.
I hope all is well with you, Riley! Sorry I blathered on so much about co-op… it’s just what’s been on my mind. I am so glad your moving-out went well! And, I’m sorry, but your mom says to tell you you’re a weenie for not writing on the blog… (I still love you J) Good luck on the last couple weeks of the quarter, and on finals, and I can’t wait to see you! (and do our inevitably epic tribute to My Drunk Kitchen.)
Love,
Lola
PS: Joe got the research job he wanted with St. Jude’s, so next summer he will be in Memphis! Also, yes of course we already are planning on going to Dollywood. What sort of fools do you take us for? You should send him a congrats text and a happy almost 21st birthday text if you get the chance!
