An (MIT) Room with a View
My perspective of MIT’s rhythms from the windows in lab
I did not pick the lab I joined based on the view. But my desk, and everyone else’s in the lab, which is situated on the 2nd floor of building 68, overlooks Hockfield Court. As a coveted area of green space between Buildings 66, 68, 76, and the Stata, the Court serves as a bustling […]
Do it now. Seek help now.
Finding treatment for mental illness can be challenging. Don’t wait for things to get really bad. Seek treatment on a good day.
Mental illness is not unfamiliar to many MIT graduate students. People as smart as typical MIT students, when placed under that much pressure, are bound to have it. Look beyond three feet in front of you, and you’ll find evidence of it: that friend you haven’t seen in two weeks, long lines at MIT Mental […]
Give me a break!
My journey of deferring my admission to MIT… and how I rediscovered my sense of self
“Congratulations! We are pleased to offer you admission to the Graduate Program of the Department of Biology at MIT,” was probably one of the most awesome starts to an email ever. Yet I felt a tinge of sourness as I relished in the excitement of being accepted to MIT, given that it was April 2020 and […]
An ode to Kenji’s Cooking Show
How home cooking during the pandemic helped me gain a new mentor
At the start of the pandemic, my cooking skills were in top form. I had mastered scrambled eggs and had honed my selection criteria for one pot pastas (the simpler, the better). However, the pandemic and the subsequent shutdown revealed some gaping holes in my knowledge. I was suddenly home all the time, afraid of […]
Experimenting with love
Attempting to date as a PhD student in Biology
As far as bad dates went, this one was catastrophic. My date (we’ll call him “Brad”) was drunk, not just on his own ego, but also quite literally drunk. Though really, this was not my fault, as he had decided to come that way. As the waitress cleared our table, he swiveled around to look […]
