A Geology Meme a Day…
culture  

A Geology Meme a Day…

By Andrew Chan

Keeps your bad grades away! (hopefully – just took the final, did not go well). Hello from Maryland! As you can probably tell, I’m a couple days behind with my blog posts. I’m currently staying with the parents of my roommate from last year while I’m at the American Geophysical Union conference in Washingotn, DC. But more on that later (they’re my new favorite people!).

This is a bit of a reflection on a class and how I’ve spent this last week before I headed off to death by finals in another state. And a reflection on a term that’s probably been the hardest work I’ve done up until this point.

It hasn’t been easy. This term was actually supposed to be easy. But a combination of more Chouse work than I ever wanted to do, searching for summer jobs, a new math professor for a class that was supposed to be very straightforward, and fencing more than ever have all made this a bit of a mess, and that’s ok.

Sometimes, you need to take some time to make a meme. For all of you parents out there, (according to Wikipedia) a meme is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture—often with the aim of conveying a particular phenomenon, theme, or meaning represented by the meme. These often-humorous little tidbits are something that I started making during geology class.

Ge 11a was honestly not my favorite class to start. It’s a required general geology class that took a bit more time than I had to spend on it and wasn’t always on topics I was interested in. So, I made it better with a little bit of 21st century humor.

Sure, these aren’t too funny (elf on the continental shelf is definitely low-quality creation but it was RIGHT there). And for every meme I made, I grew a little fonder of the lecture, the content we were learning, and everything else. Sure, that would often be knocked back by a long problem set or some time when I wanted to be doing something else. But generally, I grew to appreciate Ge 11a. But oh man that final wasn’t a great time. They usually never are at Caltech. The open book policy is a gift and a curse. On one hand, it means you don’t have to study to memorize things. On the other, it means that nothing is tested that’s in your notes. Either way, I only have one more exam left.

Let’s yeet this wheat, –Chandrew

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