Week two...oh yeah, it's through.
So, week two at NASA came and went pretty quick. Not much changed except I finally started to earn my way around the lab. Every afternoon was always full of work, whether I was processing my good looking soil or doing random chemistry stuff that I don't know about. Regardless, I finally started to meet more people, especially the other interns. As far as new observations...well, can't think of too many colossal ones off the top of my head.
One thing is the actual e-mail; apparently NASA had this glorious idea to send out 324234 pieces of organization wide mail...every day. I've deleted over 200 e-mails just in the last 3 days alone, mostly just these "reply to all" such responses. And a lot of the stuff, I guarantee no one but the person who types it reads it. Simply amazing.
Second big observation of the second week was the many visiting and guest people working at the SLS that...well, suffer from speaking the English language too clearly. A random assortment of Asian, Latinos and Jamicans have made it difficult at time to receive or deliver messages during the day. I don't care so much, but I was rather amazed at such the assortment in abilities to speak the only language likely understood by 90 percent of us there. Plus, the whole awkward situation where two guys started talking in Chinese the other day in the elevator while looking at me...yeeeeeeeeeeeeeah.
Overall, things are really going great. My knee still swells after playing soccer and I managed to almost break my toe and get hit in the shin so hard that it's now swollen as well. I think I shall invest in a pair of shin guards possibly. Or maybe not.
The weekend was just really laid back. The interns were given front row seats for the shuttle landing. Pretty cool experience since we were literally 75 yards or less from the actual runway. Hearing the sonic boom right over where they break the atmosphere caused everyone to jump like little school girls. But, was pretty cool to see "the flying brick" come in for a complete landing, then watch it race by as if the thing had no brakes. Then got to meet some astronauts by accident at a restaurant/bar where we and they happened to all be at the same time. Got to shake their hands and such goodness...while holding a Coors Light in the other.
In other news...I can't believe I'm already in the stage of searching for graduate schools and attempting to conquer that future thing. Doesn't help when everyday someone new I meet asks me what I plan on doing or want to pursue. The question is always the same: "I'm working on it." Bad thing is, that time to "work on it" is quickly shrinking. Good thing is I may have a backup plan, as one of the managers informally hinted towards potential employment if things continue to go great this summer.
My mentor put it best the other day though: just let things roll. Since being out of school, I've really tried to look at how I approach life. At times, I still think my string is still a little too tightly wound. Some shenanigans on Saturday night/Sunday morning disproved such a theory, but I still myself anal about a lot of, well just stupid things. It's hard because the only thing I do know I want from life is a fun one, and trying to find a career to mold myself to such a need is difficult. It's finally coming down to where I have to just block everyone else out and finally make the decision on what to do 365 days from now on my own. Yeah, support is great and I can't be more thankful of my families and friends support as of lately, but I guess just for once I really do need that good little boost of self confidence. Yikes; there's two words I don't usually associate myself with.
Perhaps it's finally time I do.
Out
One thing is the actual e-mail; apparently NASA had this glorious idea to send out 324234 pieces of organization wide mail...every day. I've deleted over 200 e-mails just in the last 3 days alone, mostly just these "reply to all" such responses. And a lot of the stuff, I guarantee no one but the person who types it reads it. Simply amazing.
Second big observation of the second week was the many visiting and guest people working at the SLS that...well, suffer from speaking the English language too clearly. A random assortment of Asian, Latinos and Jamicans have made it difficult at time to receive or deliver messages during the day. I don't care so much, but I was rather amazed at such the assortment in abilities to speak the only language likely understood by 90 percent of us there. Plus, the whole awkward situation where two guys started talking in Chinese the other day in the elevator while looking at me...yeeeeeeeeeeeeeah.
Overall, things are really going great. My knee still swells after playing soccer and I managed to almost break my toe and get hit in the shin so hard that it's now swollen as well. I think I shall invest in a pair of shin guards possibly. Or maybe not.
The weekend was just really laid back. The interns were given front row seats for the shuttle landing. Pretty cool experience since we were literally 75 yards or less from the actual runway. Hearing the sonic boom right over where they break the atmosphere caused everyone to jump like little school girls. But, was pretty cool to see "the flying brick" come in for a complete landing, then watch it race by as if the thing had no brakes. Then got to meet some astronauts by accident at a restaurant/bar where we and they happened to all be at the same time. Got to shake their hands and such goodness...while holding a Coors Light in the other.
In other news...I can't believe I'm already in the stage of searching for graduate schools and attempting to conquer that future thing. Doesn't help when everyday someone new I meet asks me what I plan on doing or want to pursue. The question is always the same: "I'm working on it." Bad thing is, that time to "work on it" is quickly shrinking. Good thing is I may have a backup plan, as one of the managers informally hinted towards potential employment if things continue to go great this summer.
My mentor put it best the other day though: just let things roll. Since being out of school, I've really tried to look at how I approach life. At times, I still think my string is still a little too tightly wound. Some shenanigans on Saturday night/Sunday morning disproved such a theory, but I still myself anal about a lot of, well just stupid things. It's hard because the only thing I do know I want from life is a fun one, and trying to find a career to mold myself to such a need is difficult. It's finally coming down to where I have to just block everyone else out and finally make the decision on what to do 365 days from now on my own. Yeah, support is great and I can't be more thankful of my families and friends support as of lately, but I guess just for once I really do need that good little boost of self confidence. Yikes; there's two words I don't usually associate myself with.
Perhaps it's finally time I do.
Out