Early morning.
I wake up.
There’s a ring ring ring on my phone.
The time is 4:30AM and my third alarm, “Judas”, is blasting into my left ear. For anyone who’s been my roommate, they know that I have an endless stream of alarms meant to combat my body’s urge to get more sleep. I’m proud to say my alarms win that war during school. Technology > Biology...cept not.
Upon hearing Ju-DA Ju-DA A A , I begrudgingly get up.
Shower with Old Spice Shampoo (don’t you wish you smelled like me).
Brush my teeth with Colgate whitening toothpaste.
Eat 3 slices of Oscar Meyer turkey.
Drink 2 cups of Oceanspray CBJ.
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| Delicious. |
And enter a burgundy Toyota Sienna minivan with my rents.
This morning is reminiscent of the Lost Season 2 premiere. No?
We leave our house at 5:15AM.
Sixteen minutes later we arrive at LaGuadria Airport, the ugly little sister of JFK International.
And so began my trip to the American Society for Microbiology 2011 General Meeting.
Traveling through New Orleans, you can definitely see signs that the city struggles with water. The city is below sea level and employs a network of levees and pumps to keep the Mississippi and Gulf of Mexico out. Mankind > Nature...cept not.
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| Used to play for hours and hours. I could design Utopia. |
Every other building in New Orleans was a hotel. There were also lots of restaurants and bars. New Orleans is definitely a city fueled by tourism. I don’t know how to describe NOLA. I guess New Orleans would be a city a novice Sim City player would create if he were more concerned with making money than adequate city planning.
My airport shuttle dropped me off at the hotel and I immediately thought, “what is this janky building?” The hotel was really nice though and I appreciated the complimentary WiFi. The first thing I did when I got to my room.
The 2nd thing
And the 3rd.
Play Hair on iTunes.
Now that I had made myself feel at home, it was time to go to my first conference event. At the Presentation Institute I met the other 50 fellows in my program for a 2 day session on networking and career advice.
I sit down at a table of my peers. I introduce myself.
“Hi everyone, My name is Chidi Akusobi and I’m a rising senior from Yale University.” I flash a replica of my Julia Roberts smile and do a generic wave.
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| Kinda like this. |
A blonde haired girl then points at an adjacent empty table says
“You should sit over there”
The table laughs. I do too. Except it was one of those laughs that mask awkwardness or a social faux pas. She was joking yes but she might as well have said “YOU CAN’T SIT HERE!”
The conference officially started on Saturday and went on till Tuesday. Guys. The conference was amazing. Nothing in my life has felt so academically right. Some of the poster and talks I attended impassioned me to the point that I wanted to apply to graduate school straight. I heard the top scientists speak about issues ranging from antibiotic resistance, microbial communities, co-evolution, and bacteriophage technology.
For those of you who don’t know, I research in the Dept. of E&EB and the goal of my project is to evolve a bacteria virus, PP01 to be more lethal on the food-borne pathogenic E. coli O157:H7. My goal is to go to graduate school and hopefully do work utilizing bacteriophages as a new technology against antibiotic resistance.
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| My Halloween costume this year. |
I’ve included one of my favorite science pictures. It’s a T-even phage attaching onto an E. coli’s cell surface. It’s beautiful. Look at how perfectly adapted the virus’ morphology is for infection.
Microbial Drama. Season 1 Episode 1 Let’s go! This will beat Glee!...cept not.
Perhaps I’m a holy fool for being suddenly so dead set on this topic. But I believe in Obama’s statement “the fierce urgency of now.” If you’ve felt that inner drive before, all you want to do is type in a location, Google map: directions, and go baby go!
And so I will. I have the vision, know the path, and must now walk down that science brick road. Hopefully along the way I collect cash monies, a multi-million dollar house, and an Oscar. Don’t worry, you’re all invited to my dinner parties.
I presented my poster on Tuesday. In short, the 1.75 hours we were allotted flew by. I talked to the top profs. who do similar research and they all thought I was a graduate student! It’s a great feeling to know that your research is validated and valued by other scientists.
Gabby, the graduate student presenting next to me, told me that the world is my oyster.
And she’s right. We are all born destined to be leaders and nothing less. Unfortunately, some students are derailed by subpar education systems or unproductive family situations. And that leads me to another major goal of my life.
Teaching and Education. I will only be happy if I’m involved in the education of underrepresented students especially in science. I would not be at Yale, attending ASM conferences, or even considering graduate school if not for the Prep for Prep program. I hope we all find ways to give back in some capacity when we become leaders. Cornel West says that the difference between being successful and great is service.
Let’s shoot to be great. Let's strive to be extra-extraordinary individuals that leave lasting legacies of superb service for the betterment of peoples less fortunate.
Year of the Future starts now (well officially in Jan. 1 2011)
In solidarity,
Chidi Daniels Akusobi
Abbreviation of the Day: VOM
Short for vomit.
Real life usages
“I am projectile vom-ing right now.”
-KM
"I will VOM all over your face"
-KH
“I am projectile vom-ing right now.”
-KM
"I will VOM all over your face"
-KH
