Work.

I can't believe the first week of summer is already gone. With my job, internship, and a messed up sleep schedule, the past few days seem to have flown by so quickly. Today was the busiest day of the week: after having only three and a half hours of sleep last night (I wasn't tired so I decided to stay up cleaning, packing, and fixing the goddamn mini fridge), I woke up at 7am for work. I stopped by Subway, like I have every day of this week, and got my $3 Breakfast Combo -- a 6 inch sub with ham, egg, cheese, lettuce, onions, and tomatoes, plus a free coffee! I then spent the next four and half hours making mailing envelopes, doing inventory, cleaning kitchens and conference rooms, replenishing supply closets, and running other such errands. I really like it at the Office of Computing Services. Everyone who works there is so friendly and welcoming and I've really begun to take pride in being part of the office staff.

Anyways, after I got off work at 12:30 today, I caught a 61D to Oakland just in time. I got off at Fifth and Thackery and made a beeline for Five Guys, but I arrived one second too late and ended up behind a long line of summer camp kids. Walking out of the store, I spotted a little bagel shop across the street, where I very happily purchased a $2 bagel with cream cheese (using money that I actually worked for myself has made me extremely frugal, if you haven't noticed. I had leftover pizza for dinner later in the night, too.) I then made my way to Allen Hall, where I met up with the professor I am interning for this summer. From 1:00 to about 5:30, I worked on various assignments that he gave me. To be honest, I was a little nervous at the start of the summer to be working with such an influential and intelligent professor on the Sloan Digitial Sky Survey, which I knew virtually nothing about, but I have actually been able to learn a vast amount of information in just the past week alone and am feeling really confident about the rest of the summer. I am amazed by how the gigantic (and beautiful) telescope in New Mexico uses plates plugged with optical fibers to locate specific galaxy clusters. I am in awe of how light traveling through the early Universe created baryon acoustic oscillations which have left imprints in the cosmic microwave background radiation, resulting in the spatial distribution of galaxy clusters we see today. I am intrigued by how exoplanets too far away to be seen can still be detected by the Doppler Effect they create on the spectrum of the star they are orbiting. I am excited not just to learn more, and not just for the rest of the summer -- I am excited to seriously pursue a career path in physics and astronomy. For the first time, I am no longer worried about what will happen after college, because I have something I want, something to aim for, something to work towards. Having motivation makes all the difference.