Did y’all hear about the new girl, Cherry? by Charitha Marni

Greetings fellow TRIP website visitors! My name is Charitha (please never call me that, I like to go by Cherry) Marni and I’m currently a junior at Downingtown STEM Academy. Chances are, if you’re reading this, you’re either a future/current TRIP applicant trying to see if this program is even worth your time, or you’re my mom reading this for the 21st time admiring the one (1) thing her daughter has accomplished in the past 16 years. I’m kidding! I’ve accomplished other things! I’ve successfully mastered almost every TikTok dance and read The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde so many times that I’ve lost count, to name a few of my outstanding accomplishments.

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​Anyway, apart from wasting my life away on TikTok and reading the same piece of gay literature over and over again (yes, I don’t care what anyone says, The Picture of Dorian Gray should definitely be classified as gay literature), I love to play guitar, sing, laugh in the backseats of my friends’ cars because I don’t have my permit yet (embarrassing, I know), and volunteer at a local nonprofit called Cradles to Crayons. I mean, I also do a lot of other things but I guess no one actually reveals everything about themselves in a Get-To-Know-Me post on the internet, right? You get the gist. I’ve pretty much laid out all of the main parts of my life. So why did someone like me want to apply to TRIP?

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You know, that’s a great question, and I’m not even sure it has just one answer. As a junior in high school, I am simultaneously very sure and also not sure at all of what I want to do when I’m older. I’ve been thinking about going into Psychology and/or Chemistry in college and perhaps something related to research after I get my undergraduate degree but for the time being, all of that is just a thought. I applied to TRIP to see if that’s something I can seriously see myself doing. I don’t mean to toot my own horn, but I like to think of myself as very bubbly, curious, and desperate to help as many people as I can. All I really want is to find a profession in which I can let those parts of my personality shine, and I figured TRIP was a great way to find out if research is the right fit for me. I also applied to TRIP because I saw it as a great opportunity to meet new people. I’m always looking to expand my circle and make new friends and I thought this was a pretty cool way to find like-minded people. Just between you and me, after my first two weeks at TRIP, I can confidently say I am very satisfied with the friendships I’ve made with the amazing people I’ve met and the amazing things I’ve gotten to do in the lab. 

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I won’t ramble for too long, but yeah! That’s me in a nutshell! I’m totally looking forward to writing more for the TRIP blog and learning new things along the way.