Smart Doggy
I'm no longer taking classes over the summer, and since I've been doing remote research over this summer. So here's the weird part about this whole online schtick. Usually, since I'd be doing research, I'd be conducting said research in a, you know, lab. And I haven't yet stepped foot in a Dartmouth research lab, I've been doing all the work from home. And it's really been a give-and-take type situation.
Now, again, I can only imagine what a research lab at Dartmouth would look like. I'll definitely see for myself once I'm back on campus in the winter, but for now, given that Dartmouth has given me, an unaccredited undergraduate student, access to their multimillion dollar supercomputer for said research, I can definitely say I have high hopes.
But the present is the present, so I'm stuck at home where I can only wonder what it actually looks like. Though I'll admit, the tradeoff isn't too bad right now, given that I'm dog sitting now!
Research is undoubtedly taking a large portion of my time right now, but so is dog sitting. Now, it would admittedly be difficult to spend my whole days doing both, seven days a week. Lucky for me, I've found a way to do both. At the same time.
My days now look pretty much like this. Wake up, breakfast, take care of siblings, do a bit of research, go to "work" dog sitting, research while dog sitting, and go home and kinda see what happens next. My favorite part is especially the dog sitting. I mean, c'mon. Look at them. Tell me there's nothing you wouldn't give to spend a day with these puppies.
It's a strange way to stay productive, honestly. Though I really can't complain. A word of advice? If there's ever an opportunity to further your academic career, get paid, and play with puppies, it's in your best interest to do what you can to make that happen. But with this pandemic going with no signs of stopping (at least in California where I'm at right now) it seems that strange is the name of the game. All that's left to do is to adapt.
It's partly why I'm enjoying doing research at Dartmouth. Whenever you hear of people doing research, even at the collegiate level, it's always the same image. Nerdy, reclusive kid in a lab coat mixing chemicals and bending over microscopes. And in my experience that's not the case, really. My research right now is coding based, just helping out whenever I can. And it's not just the STEM fields that do research either. I have friends doing research in the Classics, Latin, really anything and everything. At Dartmouth, research is really for everyone, and is flexible for all commitment levels. To the point where you can dogsit while furthering the academic frontier. Wild.