My thought before my thesis defense

4 days before my defense/a month before moving

- This past week has been pretty interesting. Since I will defend my thesis at the beginning of next week, I have reached out to so many people in my life that I have met over the years to tell them about the defense. (I guess one good thing about doing a defense online is that anyone can join the defense from anywhere.) People that I reached out to include physics friends from my old high school in Thailand, high-school friends, a physics teacher (Ms. Cianciulli!), college friends, people I met during an undergrad summer school, people I met during my PhD from old roommates (quite a few of them), classmates, and Thai friends around the city. This just made me realize how many people that I have met over the past ten years in the US and even more in Thailand. 

Boston Skyline from the Charles river

- I feel like a PhD thesis defense is one of those things that I have been thinking about for so long. I thought about this moment since I learned that I want to study astronomy and do a PhD. I imagine myself standing at the podium in a fancy suit, talking about the science that I have done for more than half a decade, and making bad jokes. Even though it will not be exactly the same as what I have in mind because we have to do a defense virtually, I think it will still be a good memory for me. I feel like with all the talks that I have given since I came to MIT from student grad lunch talks, journal clubs, conference talks, public talks, and job talks, have prepared me for this one moment in time. This will mark the end of my career as a graduate student and a student period. After 13 years of school, 4 years of college, and 6 years of graduate schools, it is hard to believe that this chapter of my life is close to the end. Being a student have its perks from being to learn and get educated as a "job" to getting to all the museums for free on a student discount. I guess we all cannot be a student forever although we can all keep learning for life. But. this is the end of this particular journey. 

- This also signals that a big change is coming soon. In less than two months, I will be in a different state, living with different people, hanging out with different friends. I am pretty excited about that aspect although it will be difficult to leave my comfort zone. Boston has become a place that I am really familiar with. Because of its size as a smaller city, it is not difficult to explore a large part of it. I love the history of the city. Every store, every shop, every park has a story and they are all connected. 

- Boston is also a place that I met so many people. With graduate schools, most people are only here for one or two years. This means that I have to make new friends almost every fall when new people arrive. I did not really like it at first since it feels like you have to spend so much energy just to get to know new people every year. Now though, I appreciate it a little bit more since meeting more people allow me to learn so much more about the world that I do not know anything about. Everyone has different backgrounds and different stories. I really like hearing about all of them. 

- New England is also a start of my love for hiking. With our close proximity to beautiful mountains in New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine, it is not difficult to fall in love with outdoor and nature. Every hike is unique and the views are amazing. Another thing that I start to like when I move to Boston is, of course, board games. I still remembered the day that I played my first and only 8-hour board game. I remembered walking into a game group in a dorm, sitting down to look at what people are playing, and starting to learn all the games. I did fall into a trap of buying a lot of board game for a year or two. It was just so much fun to learn about these board games, buying them, and bringing them to people's houses. Some year, I met more people who also like board games, so I get to try even more board games. Speaking of the pandemic, one thing that I did not expect is that I get to play so much games online. Not just with people that I regularly played with in Boston, but many more people from my high school (even started a regular play group from that) and college. I also met new people from these board game sessions. Luckily, this part can and will continue after I moved from Boston. 

- I have no idea how to end this. I just want to write down how I feel and what I am thinking right now in this moment. It would be interesting to see how I feel once I have already moved away from this city that I have been called home for the past 6 years.