the orange county connection, 4.9.24

i was hosting two scientists today that came in and conducted a vmax experiment for our filtration parameters. one of the guys mentions he’s from orange county, new york. i told him i lived there for a few years growing up. he said he worked at wyeth in pearl river, which is where my dad worked as well. we go on and talk about the area. i told him since i’ve moved back, i’ve always wanted to go to warwick to visit again. he said a lot of the area is different, mainly new housing and trees that were cleared. i asked him about the galleria mall and he said it’s still up but is way different than it was 20 years ago. we get to talking about other things and he asks how i ended up in boston. i told him the story about my college experience, then he says his son is a senior in high school this year. he says his son is smart and has gotten into every school he applied to, but that every school he applied to was because of external factors besides academics. some his friends were going to, then others had big ski mountains near them. he says his son is a talented skier and that he told him that maybe he should take some time off to go for it and try to be a skier. his wife disagreed with him, but then he told me how his son is only going to be young once and he won’t be able to do that later in life. i thought that was a refreshing perspective and it made me think about my life and what i would do differently if i had to restart at 18.

it’s always good conversations with someone who shares the 845 in common with me.

-ratha, 11:31pm, 4.9.24