I’d think the older I get, the less often I’d be surprised, impressed, in aw-state. Well… I am glad to know that I was wrong. More and more often, something or someone can blow my mind in the most surprising way, which I ABSOLUTELY love.
I had a call with a first year college student from an Ivy League school. He reached out to me a month ago introducing him self and asks whether he can do an internship at my institution. I get these emails from time to time, 99% of the time, I delete them. But this person got me intrigued because he’s so young, first year college student. We don’t usually take anyone for internship without a master. He is bold to even reaching out to me. So I responded and agreed to a zoom call.
Well… I was blowed away. He is so young but so articulated, humbled, and well prepared for this “interview”. My gosh… I didn’t even know what courses I wanted to take at that age, less alone my 20 years career plan. He DOES have a plan!!! I was soooooo impressed. It doesn’t happen often and I interview quite a lot. I am likely to get him as intern next summer, paid by his school. He definitely has talent, hard working, brilliant. He’ll go somewhere, do something big, no doubt. I hope by doing the internship, it opens another possibility in life where he can use his talent.
Now into a less mind blowing story but still amusing story of the day. I had to take a work call on the dining table as Lizzy was using my office for her mandarin lesson. Sofia was having dinner so she heard my conversation. She wrote down a word: volatilities. After the call, she asked me what it means, I said why don’t you look at the dictionary. And then…. 15 min later, she’s still browsing the dictionary, looking for meanings of new words, fascinated by the amount of information it contains. I realized that this dictionary is not very good, not accurate description of complex concepts, so I think I’ll get her a better one for Christmas 🙂
I find it amusing looking at her in Pj, with her glasses, on the floor, fascinated by the dictionary.
Our New Journey 
My mom was a big proponent of the dictionary, and to this day I love words. I think that kind of curiosity is priceless and I am sure Sofia will carry that with her as you goes off into the world one day.
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I like the sweet photo of Sophia absorbed in the dictionary. I loved the dictionary when I was younger and the thesaurus when I got a little older. Words are fun.
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What a cute photo! And yes, it’s so wonderful to find that there are so many people, events, places, etc that can inspire so much awe.
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We had a highschool student in the lab over the summer and it’s pretty common that we have undergrads working in the lab throughout the year. Some of these young people really blow my mind. They are so smart and determined.
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That’s so wonderful to come across such a talented, driven young person who just puts themselves out there. I hope you get him as an intern.
Awww, and I also love that Sofia is so fascinated by the dictionary.
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