Dear Diary,
Good morning!
Well… truth be told, my alarm has been snoozed several times, but it’s early enough to still seize the day. It’s Thursday, likely my busiest day of the week, but every day is just as packed, so there’s not much comparison there. Time to get dressed for my organic chemistry lab!
Taking Organic Chemistry 2 a year after Organic Chemistry 1 has been a challenge, but it’s been exciting to get back into the groove of running through and memorizing reactions and mechanisms and solving synthesis problems like a puzzle. In the lab today, we are working with the Grignard mechanism—something we learned in class this week and are now creating in the lab. I like having a lab early in the morning since it leaves me with the rest of the day. Some of my classmates prefer a later lab; I even have a friend with a 6-9 PM laboratory. With my PPE on, I walk to the chemistry lab meeting to meet my friends. USC is said to be a big school, but I love that over the years, I’ve come to know my classmates. It’s difficult for me to be in a class and not recognize at least one face. For example, I have three friends in this chemistry class—one I met in the dining hall freshman year, another I served with on the executive board of a club, and lastly, one I met via social media before even coming to USC.
12:30 PM – Chem lab complete. Time to run to the Ronald Tutor Center to grab some lunch before hopping on the shuttle to USC’s Health Sciences Campus. I grab my favorite açaí bowl and eat while walking to the Keck shuttle. I make sure to use this time to call my friends and family back home. With the time difference and my busy schedule, it’s really important for me to stay in touch when I can. I love catching up with my sister on her high school progress and hearing all about my mom’s weekend plans. Freshman year, I used to get really homesick, and these long calls were what got me through. Whoops—almost lost track of time! I run to make sure I catch the 1 PM shuttle.
My research lab is on the Health Sciences Campus since it falls within the field of medicinal research. On the Keck shuttle, I create some flashcards for my biochemistry class, BISC 312. I really enjoy the concepts in this class, though there’s a lot of memorization that comes with it. Anki and Quizlet have become my best friends. When I finally arrive at the Health Sciences Campus, I climb up to my research lab on the third floor of the Norris Cancer Center Building. In my lab, I’m working to understand how a protein of interest affects cancer progression through epigenetic modulations. My research from the summer inspired me to continue this at USC, and it’s definitely my happy place. The lab consists of postdocs, PhD students, MD-PhD students, master’s students, and a few more undergraduates like me.
5:00 PM – After wrapping up my research work for the day, I make sure to catch the 5:05 PM shuttle back to the main campus. This shuttle is no joke—it leaves not even a second after the scheduled time. I need to take this shuttle because I have a meeting for my entrepreneurship pitch competition, MEPC: Maseeh Entrepreneurship Prize Competition, at 6 PM, and 5:05 marks the start of rush hour. As I sit on the shuttle home, I review some scripts for my screenwriting class since we have a script due every Sunday.
I check my watch—5:50 PM…uh, oh, traffic got the best of me. I need to run to the Michelson Building to make it in time for my meeting. Luckily, my team members are already there. We’ve been working on our startup project through a club called Medesign and are participating in these entrepreneurship competitions with our product. We’ve received great mentorship, and our workshops have been incredibly helpful for our growth. I leave the meeting at 7:50 PM because I have to rush to my last meeting of the day.
From 8:00-10:00 PM, I serve as a Team Lead for RISHI’s Childhood Education team. Project RISHI is a community service organization dedicated to aiding the South Asian population. Within the Childhood Education team, I’m helping to organize a science fair in a town in Punjab and coordinating panelists to speak about various scientific topics.
10:00 PM: Time to go home! I live in a house of 7 incredible and inspiring women. They are amazing role models and have become my family at USC. I met many of them through my involvements in student organizations, others through friends, but they are my sisters at USC. I am ready to unwind with them and run out to grab a sweet treat at our favorite 24 hour donut shop in Koreatown. These people truly make the place, and are the reason I love to call USC home.
Lots of Love,
Ishaani
