I Hope My TRIP Doesn't Fly By Too Fast by Daniel Lee

Hi all, my name is Daniel and I'm currently a junior in Wissahickon High School! To tell you a bit about myself, I've lived in Pennsylvania for my entire life with my mother, father, and little sister. Both of my parents were born in South Korea, with my mother originating from Seoul and my father being from Jeolla-do. My parents both moved to the States around the ages of 12 (mother) and 30 (father) and married in '05! Around the age of 11 my family and I moved from Haverford to Blue Bell, where we still currently live. I’m really proud of my Korean heritage and it's been a major part of my life, including the rich history, fun traditions, and the amazing food!

In school I participate in a handful of activities. A couple worth mentioning are Key Club, Asian Student Association, Mock Trial, and Junior Class Committee. But if I had to underscore one, it would definitely be tennis. While I love the sport and the game itself, I adore the progression even more and the changes you undergo as an athlete and person! Throughout the game, it's inevitable that you face defeat, whether it comes about by making too many critical errors or simply just going up against an overwhelming stronger opponent. It’s important to efficiently learn from your losses in order to come back stronger and smarter. I make it my mission to never step onto the court fearing a loss, always reminding myself of the importance of losing and learning from defeat. It's even better when you have loads of fun all along the way!

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I’ve included below an awesome quote from my all-time favorite player. "If you don't lose, you can't enjoy the victories. I have to accept both things. Losing is not my enemy, fear of losing is my enemy." - Rafael Nadal

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I applied to TRIP to broaden my knowledge of laboratory research and wanted to get a feel for a biology-related career.

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I applied to TRIP to broaden my knowledge of laboratory research and wanted to get a feel for a biology-related career. I was drawn into the unique personal project aspect of the program, allowing me a large scope of freedom to experiment, while being able to bounce ideas off of my amazing instructors and peers. I got to know a bunch of new friends and learned how to use some pretty expensive equipment like micropipettes. This past Saturday I even learned how to prepare yummy fly food! For my kickoff experiment I will be learning how Valerian and a high sugar diet affect the fruit fly's anxiety levels. Although I've never used Valerian before, simply learning about how certain dietary factors influence one's behavior is really intriguing to me. Isn't learning about behavior so exciting? I have no clue as to what my main individual project is going to be later on but I know I'm going to love it every step of the way!