ahhh neocities completely slipped my mind these few weeks oops i've been really busy and life has just been a whirlwind of god knows what recently. i was in the lab for around 3 weeks working on a science research project - super fun and purposeful but also very hellish. it actually sucked the soul out of me and i became pretty much unable to think about much less work on anything else. anyways i finished my lab stint (though my project is still very much in the works) and i'm doing an internship elsewhere. it's botany and horticulture related which is so so so fun i'm so happy to be able to do this!!!! it's a lot of manual work since i'm working in a plant nursery but i'm really learning a lot and i'm glad that i have the chance to learn hands-on because i find it hard to do so on my own.
i'm not sure if i've talked about it on here before but self-learning about my science-related interests has been really challenging (as opposed to more humanities-related interests) because there's a lack of good resources out there and science communication tends to manifest in either overly simplistic/beginner-friendly materials or research journal levels which can be too advanced or out there. so it's hard to find stuff that can give enough insights in a more "scientific" way yet remain understandable to me if you know what i mean!
yeah so i've always found natural history, botany and plant taxonomy interesting and i absorb whatever information i can get my hands on but it's been hard for me to learn it critically and in a way where i can apply it by myself. i guess that's why i feel extra lucky to have this opportunity because it lets me learn about plants in both a (somewhat) academic and experential way yay! they gave me a chart of the angiosperm phylogeny (which is fancy for flowering plant systematics) and i've enjoyed looking at it and trying to identify plants hehe
i just finished my first week there and i'm excited for the next two weeks too! i'll get to shadow different departments and look at different plants which is very exciting. i feel like i'm so much better able to appreciate plants now and the care that goes into cultivating them :3 wish me luck!
- j