It's all about Chris and Tracy

The Chris and Tracy Show :)

Interviewer: Midley
Interviewees: Chris and Tracy

Me: What made you choose this career?
Tracy: I choose science because I like the natural world. I grew up in Florida so I wanted to snorkel and scuba dive. I said I'm going to be a marine biologist and it's going to be the most awesomist thing in the world and study sponges! My father grew up in the 50's and 60's when all the kids wanted to be a marine biologist so he thought that was a really bad idea. So I said okay I'll look for something else and because at the time I was working in a lab after college, and I found this job in viruses and I thought it was cool. Then I started moving into molecular biology, and now I'm here.
Chris: In high school I did rescue squad and decided then I wanted to be a doctor, went to college and took a lot of science classes, and then started working in a lab. Then the more I thought about it, the more I realized I didn't want to be a doctor. I wanted to help people and doctors don't really help, and it seemed very slipper to get into the medical system and not as rewarding I would like it to be. I really liked science so I went to get my PhD and that is why I am here.

Me: What was your favorite subject growing up? (Science for both)
Tracy: I love solving puzzles and I like asking questions and being able to find the answer.
Chris: However, it is a boring subject when you are just being told what you should be studying, like in high school. But I it like when I get to solve my own problems. That's our job everyday, come in, create a problem and solve it.

Me: What is a big dream that you fear you will never be able to furfill?
Chris: I don't know.
Tracy (shocked): You're furfill?!
Chris (casually): Yeah, I think so. If I were to die today, I wouldn't have any regrets.
Tracy (nods): That's good.
Chris: What are your big dreams?
Tracy: I would like to open a bakery, where I supply my own meat, a farm, and learn how to play the chello!
Chris: I guess I would like to play the piano more, but that's not something I'm worried about not furfilling. But I think I want to learn how to play the piano.
Tracy: How long have you wanted to play the piano?
Chris: A couple of years, four, five. I took a class in college, it was alright.
Tracy: Yeah.
Chris: I'm planing on buying a keyboard to hook up to my computer cause Apple has a program where you can have someone like Alicia Keys teach you how to play the piano!
Tracy: That is too cool!
Chris: Yeah, very cool.
Tracy: I wonder if they have a chello option.
Chris: They may. You have to be able to plug it in though.
Tracy (confidently): They have electric chellos!
-hahaha, they are too cool! :)-

Me: What is your favorite meal?
Chris: I kinda like them all, that's hard!
Me: Tracy like vegetables!
Tracy: My husband makes this ..... soup, it's packed with tofu....(and other stuff)...and I think it is the best thing ever since sliced bread!
Chris: I like food! I'm very agreeable. I like it in large greesy quantities.

Me: What is your favorite color?
Chris: Blue.
Me: Why, do you wear it like everyday? (the whole time I've been in the lab, I've only seen Chris wear blue everyday besides like four days!)
Chris: I own a lot of blue.
Tracy: I can't answer that, I have no idea.
Me: How come you never wear bright colors? (Chris was laughing at me, I wasn't being mean!) Tracy: I don't know, I just never have.
Chris: That is an observation people have about Tracy. She is very into her grays, blacks and browns.
Tracy: My house is really colorful though, we have a lot of bold bright colors! Hot pink, orange, red, yellow...
Me: Is it just to work you don't wear bright colors?
Tracy: I just don't decorate myself with bright colors. I think it's like an attention thing, I like to just blend in the background, that's how I roll.

Me: What is your favorite season? Why?
Me: Tracy I want you to answer this first. (That morning we had a talk about this question.)
Tracy: That is not a real question!
Me: Yes it is, look, number 6!
Tracy: Oh man, okay well, don't tell my husband but my favorite season is fall. It's fall because I love the weather, it's perfect. The evenings are cool enough that you can wear a jacket and feel a nice breeze. Oh and the trees, I love the bright bright orange trees, those are my favorite. And the holidays are coming! It's a nice kick off! Bam Bam Bam :)
Chris: I like spring into early summer. I like watching the plants come back alive and I find winter to be horrible, that's probably the worst time of the year..
Me (sadly): Hey, I was born during the winter!
Chris: Oh yeah, me too. But, it's a miserable season! It's cold, soggy, not attractive and depressing! The days are very short, which I don't enjoy, and I love spring because it is the total opposite. The days starts getting longer and it lets me know how great summer is going to be, since winter was so horrible. Spring is where it's at!
Tracy: Wait, you will never know how great summer is unless you have winter.
Chris: Then I'll love it all the time than! I would love spring, summer and fall!
Me: At least he included fall.
Tracy: Yeah, that's true.
Chris: I like fall, it's just not my favorite.
Tracy: That's fine.
Chris: But it's sad since fall reminds you that everything is about to die and leave you.
Tracy (shakes her head): But there's the excitement for snow.
Me: Not the cleaning part.
Chris: I'm fine with like two snows, but after that it's like this was great but now what?

Me: On your day off, what do you like to do?
Tracy: You can go first, my answer sucks. (haha smh)
Chris: I like to sleep in, read books, definitely not a science book, go for a nice run, go to a park and take pictures, eat a nice meal and go out with my friends at night.
Tracy: I just hang out with my son. aww :) And my husband, but he's usually taking a break from my son since he has him all day.

Me: Any advie for me?
-awkward silence-
Chris (jokingly): What's the saying, age comes wisdom?
Chris: A couple things, never worry about what people think of you, or what people think you should be. Always know who you are and follow that. Also enjoy discovoring what that means. And in life don't work for money or for others, work for yourself and happiness!
Tracy: Find what you love in life and make that your career. Don't worry about money, it will come.


Thank you guys! :)
Those two are awesome! They always help me whenever I need help and they have made my summer worth remembering. Everyday we have the most randomist conversations, but they are so happy and live that you can tell they really enjoy what they do. I really appreciate that I meant them and is thankful for all the advice and conversations I have had with them about my future. I really hope I can come back this December and spend two weeks with them for another internship! :)

Field Trip: Children's Hospital

Just last Friday, the RAP program took a field trip to the Children's Hospital. It was really great to hang out with the other interns after not seeing them for a whole week and a half. As we walked to the hospital, which was only a few minutes away, I began to snap pictures trying to capture as many moments as possible. During our trip we had two tour, one from John Baci, who works in the Pathology Department, and Keith Solomon, who works in the Orthopedics Department. What I will be reflecting on is my experience with Mr. Solomon.

When I first met Mr. Solomon he was very straight forward, loud and straight to the point. He wasted no time telling us about himself and what he did. My first impression is that he was a mean person and did not enjoy laughter or any type of fun. You may think I did not like him, but as he continued to talk to us, I began to realized he was real and a very smart person who did enjoy to laugh. After he introduced himself quickly, for about 15 minutes (haha), he made us go around stating our name, rising grade, current high school, dream college, and which job we would consider in the future. As each intern went around, he had many comments for each of us while giving us useful advice. I told him my dream college was Stanford University and all he could say was that it was a really hard school to get into and if I really wanted it I had to make sure academically I was on point but still had a personality. At that point I wanted to just seat down and talk with him to get his opinions on many things because they seemed as if they were very useful and he spoke the truth.

Giving us a tour around his lab was nothing new to me because I currently work in a lab exactly like his. He showed us many of the machines and tools my lab had, but it was cool when he asked us questions about them, challenging us to make sure we actually understood what we knew and were taught. I will be honest and say I did not give him my full attention, but only because it was almost lunch time and I was STARVING, but I did learn a couple things from Mr. Solomon. He told us our bones stop growing when we turn 20. That's two more years and a half for me! I'm taking this very seriously and am going to make sure my bones are nice, thick and healthy, so I won't go through the excruciating bone breaking pain many elderly people face. He also told us people don't have to worry about their cholesterol until they are 30 years old. I have many years until that age, but I should still watch what I eat, keeping a well balanced diet so it won't be so difficult when I'm older. He told us a funny story of how growing up there was only one fat kid in a neighborhood who always got made fun of, but now there is a massive amount of people who are obese in one neighborhood. It was funny to hear that, yet it is sadly true.

One thing that Mr. Solomon told me that stuck with me is when he said there is a big difference between a doctor and a scientist. A doctor only works with things that has already been discovered and proven, while a scientist goes into work everyday ready to explore something new no one else has discovered. That has really got me thinking for the past few days. I keep asking myself do I want to work from the past or work on creating the future. I am leaning more toward working as a scientist and there are many things in public health that hasn't been discovered yet.

Coming from the two tours, I realized both Mr. Buci and Mr. Solomon don't work with patients. I love working with patients and getting the opportunity to interact with them and meet so many new different people. I am still currently confused about what I was as a career and a college major since college is only a year away. However, I repeatedly have to remind myself I'm still a kid and have many years to think about it and figure it out. I still have this summer to finish, so I will just continue enjoying this amazing opportunity that was given to me.

Living life one day at a time! :)

Three weeks down...Four more to go!

These three weeks have gone by so quickly, making me realize my time in the lab is running out, summer is almost over, and worst of all senior year is right around the corner! Working in the lab has been so unpredictable that I laugh whenever I think about my experience. There are days I am in the lab shadowing an employee and is very excited when they assign me something simple that I am able to handle to limit their amount of work, while there are other days I am in the lunch room meeting new employees and conversating with them as if I've known them for more than five minutes. Within these few weeks I have been told what an amazing opportunity that was given to me and I am really starting to appreciate it knowing how competitive this program is.

Just last Friday, I was able to attend a Tuberculosis and HIV conference at MIT. I was one of the only two high schools students to attend. Let me tell you, so many unknown information was thrown at me and I was just blown away. I know nothing is ever impossible to learn but I believe everything I was told last week will take me years to understand! I lost count of the amount of people who presented but every person presented for about 20 minutes. It was cool knowing so many people were learning different information and running different test for the same topic. That made me excited to know I don't have to follow what others are doing but investigate whatever interest me, knowing whatever I find out in the future will be useful to everyone.

Since the lab is so independent and I can't go off and do my own experiments, many of the employees have been very considerate about expanding my learning during my stay. I have had many conversation about my future, been taken to the library to read one of my employees two favorite scientific books, been quizzed about what I was taught about TB, and given books to do some studying. I would say I have come across one problem, because I haven't taken bioliogy in high school yet and my high school doesn't use textbooks, trying to learn and understand all of these new facts through different textbooks has been a struggle. I guess I shouldn't complain because I enjoy a nice challenge and this is a preview of how college is going to be. There are many things I am going to be completly confused about, but I have to me smart and ask for help whenever I need it.

I will say I haven't reached the climax of my summer yet but I am enjoying it so far. There's many more to learn and experience and many more blogs for me to post! :)

Midley's Workspace

Where I work: Midley

I work in the eight floor in the HSPH Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases. In the lab I am surrounded by different tools like pipets and expensive machines like the microfuge centrifuge. The lab tends to be very laid back and quiet. Most of the employees are doing independent studies, so they are always either in front of their computer typing a lap report or doing more research, or at their station running many test. I enjoy working in the lab and believe it has an efficent atmosphere where anyone can get their work done.

Who's that?

What's your name?
Midley Theork

What do you do in your free time?
During my free time, I like to hang out with my friends, play sports (basketball, soccer, softball and track), take a lot of pictures because I am interest in being a photographer as my main hobby as an adult, and to relax I like to read a book, watch a movie, and listen to music.

Describe what you're doing at RAP and how you feel about it. What's something cool or interseting you learned this week that you didn't know before?
Working in the lab, I am always learning something new every day. To be more specific, I am learning about the infectious disease called tuberculosis, known at TB, that about one-third of the world's population is affected with. The reason the number is so high and people aren't able to be cured is because of drug resistance. Because of two resistant, MDR and XDR, when an antibiotic is applied, it is not effective and only drug resistane cells live. My goal is to get a better understanding of the evolution of drug resistant cells, so I have many more to learn and many tests to complete. Learning this, I began to understand what am important summer I am about to have, for myself and my lab which doesn't fully understand drug resistance as well.

Tell me about yourself. ewhat kind of music do you like? What's your favorite color? What's your sign? What clothes do you like to wear?
I listen to all types of music; what catches my attention if often the beat or lyrics of a song.
My birthday is February 13, so I am an Aquarius, who are known to possess strong and attractive personalities. It was difficult choosing my favorite color, but because my birthday is the day before Valetine's Day and I am not a girly girl, I simply chose red.
I like to wear a variety of different clothes. There are days that I love to wear basketball shorts/baggy sweats and a tank top, while there are other days I like to wear a skirt or a short dress with high heels. I just like to be comfortable and relaxed no matter the moment.
Oh one last thing, I LOVE to smile! :)

What's your dream job?
My dream job is to work with infectious diseases internationally, so I can have the ablility to travel the world to enjoy myself while helping many people.

Final (very important) question: Pancakes? Waffles? French toast??
French toast of course!