Sunday, July 5, 2020
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Since the pandemic accelerated back in March, we’ve all been experiencing a weird passage of time. For some, it’s plodded by, each week like a year. For others, we blinked and found ourselves in July. For still others (myself included), time is paradoxically slow and fast, as if we’re simultaneously observing the world within and outside of its inertial reference frame.
Towards the midpoint of last week, my roommate pointed out that 2020 is halfway done. That’s a loaded statement to unpack, so for the purpose of this blog, let’s start smaller: this internship is halfway done.
It feels as if a small lifetime has passed over the last five weeks. When I started the internship, all I knew about science writing was what I’d gathered from reading others’ work. Now, I’ve gotten a sense of what the field is like, tested my skills by writing my first piece, and began gathering sources for a longer article. This whole time, I’ve mostly been learning science writing from the perspective of Physics Today, but on Thursday, I attended a virtual brunch (sans the brunch) with Natasha Loder, an editor for The Economist. This media outlet targets a more general audience than PT, so it was really interesting to hear the similarities and differences between how the two run.
After the brunch, I met with Andrew, and when he said “I can’t believe it’s July,” the reality struck me: we’re already five weeks in. A lot has happened in the first half of the internship, but it also feels like no time has passed. It was a jarring awakening to realize that July was starting, and even more jarring to think about everything that needs to happen over the next five weeks. In my experience, the second half of anything goes by much faster than the first. If I dare to blink, I’ll be writing my last blog before my eyes can even open.
Samantha Creech