So this week was supposed to be pretty different but it actually did not seem to turn that way. For the first time since I was nine, I actively chose not to participate in the Ramadan fast. Most folks will recognize it as the holy month when the Prophet Muhammad first had the Quran given to him. Although I have really turned away from my religious background, I keep up with Ramadan for cultural reasons. Plus the fast has usually made me much healthier and more keen on what foods I have in my days.

As wonderful a time it is, I actually could not keep up with the fast this year. As the Islamic calendar is lunar-based, the holiday moves back around 10 to 11 days each year. However, the long hours of the day was the not source of the problem, my schedule during these hours were. As you may have known from recent posts, my time has become entirely devoted to research, dance, and learning. Due to the tight schedule, I already have little time to eat and try to make sure it is quick. The reason why the schedule is somewhat packed in the first place is because sleep has become a major priority and for me to sacrifice those earlier times of eating would cut into my regular sleeping hours to make sure I can get in my daily nutrition. I will not make that sacrifice as the route I am taking is already pretty sacrificing while healthy. Fortunately for me, I can make up for my fast in later days, which I hope to because of its health benefits.

Anyways, our lab recently went through a statistics frenzy. Based on the Nature Methods series, we ended overviewing the most critical concepts in statistics to understand when conducting biological experiments. You could definitely say it was convenient for me as I brush up on my statistics before I return to Yale, but my brain definitely suffered a little. Luckily, we enclosed all the work in a nice little textbook so I have excellent supplementary materials before I head back to campus. Hopefully, it does make a difference.