Chadron State College Bacterial Genomics Final Day: Welcome to the Final Show
We hope you’re wearing your best clothes!
What’s up guys this is Syna and Impana writing last but not least!
Our day started as soon as the clock hit 12AM with movie night!!! We watched Us, but I (Syna) joined in like an hour into the movie so I had no idea what was going on, but it was definitely fun to watch everyone’s reactions!
Some of us enjoyed our last ramen night together while watching Us! I think a good 90% of our cohort was watching this movie together on the final night 🙂
We finished the movie around 1:30AM (TA Mi Young and TA Jeff allowed us to stay up past curfew for the final night! Thank you TAs!!). And then we both went up to pack Syna’s dorm.
(Left) Syna trying to close her suitcase. (Right) Impana helping fold Syna’s laundry bag!
Syna’s room all packed!
We ended up packing Syna’s dorm around 4AM and went to “sleep” around 4:30AM… and then we woke up around 6AM to pack our final items before heading down to the lobby by 7AM to hand in our dorm keys.
Didn’t we see this 5 weeks ago?
Suitcase pile galore…
Unfortunately, some of our friends (Olivia, Paul, and Joyce) weren’t riding the bus with us to the airport, so we had to say our goodbyes to them, which was definitely hard to get through.
Group 4 (Rohan, Olivia, and Catherine) saying their final goodbyes 😢
Then we had to say our final goodbyes to the absolutely luxurious place we got to call home for 5 weeks… and we had to say goodbye to our fabulous TAs and senior faculty.
(Left) Our wonderful TAs and senior faculty sending us off to the airport 🙁 (Right) Impana saying her final goodbyes to her birthday twin… TA Luci!
From there, the rest of us embarked on our final journey together. The bus ride was fun, filled with karaoke and laughter. But 2 hours later, we got to the airport.
After checking in (poor Josh and Chanwee got pulled over) we all waited for the flights to start. In the meantime, we played games.
But the first of us started leaving. Every time someone left, we all felt a wave of sadness rush over us. The first big crew with a lot of people to leave was Dallas, and that is when we had to say goodbye to each other and our shared blog ends.
Impana
The Dallas crew was the first big group of people who had left, so we were all pretty bummed out. There was a somber feeling in the air as we all left the gate and sat back down. It didn’t help that a lot of us were getting notified that our flights were getting delayed, and I personally found out that I was likely gonna miss my layover.
But soon after, it was time for us to board our Chicago flight. After tearful goodbyes and tight hugs, I made my way to the plane. I turned around and waved goodbye one last time. 5 weeks ago, we looked at each other for the first time as strangers; now, when I looked at everyone for the last time, I saw a multitude of memories that we would leave each other with.
The flight went by in a blur. It was mostly spent with me dozing off and occasionally watching Project Hail Mary on the screen two rows ahead of me, which did NOT help with my mood (iykyk).
When I landed, I met up with Sophia, Eric, and William as we walked over to their final destinations. We said bye to Eric as he went to his layover, and I watched Sophia and William leave the airport.
I miss you both!
I went to my gate just to find out that my flight had been delayed to 9:30. How wonderful. Just then, I remembered that Aditya was also at the airport, so I went on a hunt for him in the giant airport. It took a while, but I found him at the United help desk. We quickly left after talking to the admittedly less-than-helpful workers, and wandered around for a while.
I was excited to have food outside of the dining hall, so we shared Cheese bites and I got a dragon fruit acai bowl. It was really good, but Chadron State College dining hall, you will be forever missed.
(can you tell from my face that I wasn’t expecting this photo)
Before I had to board my flight, we found Wuyan and Catherine at the food court and had our first SSP reunion!
From left to right, Wuyan, Aditya, Me, Catherine
Unfortunately, it was short lived as I had to board soon, so I said my goodbyes to everyone and ran over to my gate.
I was exhausted when I boarded, so I pretty much slept through the whole flight. I woke up to the hum of the flight landing and I was relieved to look outside and see that I was at home. I was really tired though, so I basically trudged to the luggage, to the uber, up my driveway, and into my house.
Home sweet home 🙂
My mom made me my favorite rice, and after practically inhaling it I went to my room and collapsed onto my bed, thinking about what had transpired since I had last slept here. This has truly been the best summer ever thanks to SSP. I’ve loved living and working with the kindest, funniest, most passionate and hardworking people. From the early morning runs to the afternoon lab sessions to the late night talks, I’ll cherish every moment we’ve had together; it wasn’t always easy, but good things never are. But all good things must come to an end, so this is Impana signing off on SSP’s 2026 bacterial genomics at Chadron.
Syna
I was unfortunately part of the Dallas crew that left before everyone else 🙁
I snuck a quick little picture of everyone (who made it past the long American Airlines check-in line and TSA) walking us to our gate!
Quick preview of our Dallas crew! From left to right: Daisy, Peilin, me, Ira, Eva.
All of us boarded the plane together, with the exception of Ira who was flying first class! The rest of us (Daisy, Eva, Peilin, and I) FaceTimed the rest of the cohort while we were on the passenger boarding bridge, even though it had only been like five minutes away from them. That’s when we got to know that Rohan had left for his Atlanta flight, and that’s when the emotions started to get more realistic for me.
Finally boarded my first flight to DFW.
The flight was only about 2.5hrs, which went by fast because I ended up sleeping throughout the entire flight. I did occasionally wake up to the turbulence, but it wasn’t too bad, especially because I love turbulence for some odd reason—it’s kind of like a roller coaster! Anyways, I remember I wasn’t too sad when I boarded the plane… until we were on the runway. Even though that plane was full of SSP students, both from Biochem and BacGen, I just remember looking out the window during take off and feeling nostalgic for this group of SSP students. I think when our plane finally made it in the air was when all the emotions of departure day hit me. I’m not sure who’s reading this blog, but to all the SSPers at Chadron State: thank you for making this summer the best experience ever!
Once we landed, we walked Ira as far as we could to baggage claim and then we unfortunately had to say our final goodbyes… 🙁
We had a little over 2hrs of layover, so after dropping Ira off, the rest of our Dallas crew wandered around Terminal B in DFW. There were so many food options to choose from, which was crazy after living in Nebraska for five weeks straight! We wandered around the terminal for a bit before ending up at Panda Express!
Genuinely the happiest sight ever 🤩
Eva and I got food from Panda Express while Daisy and Peilin found a restaurant in Terminal D, so we headed over to that terminal to get their food! On the way there we passed by the worst sight ever…
My biggest nemesis… if you know, you know.
Anyways, we also took a quick pit stop next to one of the humongous windows to take a good look at civilization.
(Left to Right) Daisy, Eva, Me. We haven’t seen this many people in so long…
I didn’t end up taking a picture of all of us eating our lunch, but I did get to watch a bit of the World Cup game to determine who got third-place! It was quite an interesting game to watch, but I’m glad England won!
I’ll always miss watching the World Cup with Wuyan and Josh during our short breaks in between lectures 😞
Once we were done eating, we decided it was time to say our final goodbyes. We all took the Skylink to our own terminals, where we unfortunately had to split up.
The Skylink was a pretty fun experience! I even got a little glimpse of the end of the England v. France game that was streaming on someone’s phone. (Left to Right) Me, Peilin, Eva, Daisy.
Fortunately for me, Eva and I both live in Cleveland, so we were able to stick together throughout our entire journey home! We ended up getting to our terminal ~30 minutes before boarding started, so we decided we would FaceTime some of our friends!
Another day of SSP… Eva and I FaceTimed Enzo just to realize that he and Maxwell were still at the Rapid City airport! Their flights got delayed so much that they had to spend the night back in Rapid City.
We finally were able to board our plane back home! Eva and I didn’t get to sit next to each other, but that was fine because I was completely out of it the entire flight. I slept throughout the entire flight and was so tired that I didn’t even wake up when the flight attendants were given out snacks 😟
I did wake up occasionally to gather content for the blog though!
After almost 12 hours of travelling, Eva and I finally made it home, back to Cleveland!
Finally reunited!!
Wow, I’ve missed Cleveland! 🙂
Our day started bright and early around 5:45AM and finally came to an end around 1AM. These past five weeks have definitely felt surreal, but I’m glad I got to experience every bit of it. I’m sad that we had to leave each other, but I am also happy to be in the comfort of my home.
Home sweet home 🙂
Well… that’s all the content I’ve got for my portion of the blog! I’m writing this blog a couple days after we came home, and it’s definitely odd not being able to walk downstairs into a group of us hanging out next to the beanbags, debriefing, laughing, making friendship bracelets, and just having the time of our lives. I’ll always miss the memories I’ve made with you all, but I have no doubt that our 36-person group chat will stay alive (please keep texting on there).
To all my fellow SSPers: thank you from the bottom of my heart. You all are the reason this experience was so meaningful to me and the reason why saying goodbye was impossible. I know every single one of you will go off to do impressive things and I have no doubt your futures will be full of accomplishments. I know we’ll all meet again somewhere far away from here (get the reference??), but until then, have the best senior year ever! 🤗
I don’t have a cool collage like Impana does, but this is Syna signing off on SSP’s 2026 Bacterial Genomics cohort from Chadron State College.
-
Impana
I’m Impana from Franklin, TN! I love exploring biology, public health, and ethics, and I’m interested in becoming a biomedical engineer for undergrad. Outside of school, I love reading, hiking, swimming, and spending time with friends.
-
Syna
Hi everyone! I’m Syna and I’m from Cleveland, Ohio! I love microbiology and am interested in studying Computational Biology in the future. Outside of school, I absolutely love going out on walks or hikes, enjoying nature, spending time with friends, and watching movies!
