Making, Mastering, and Motivating: My May
Subtitles are lame (but informative!). Just kidding! Hope you have fun reading this :)
Hey!
I wasn’t sure why my golfer dad always has two pairs of pants by his side… but then I realized that it was in case he got a hole in one.
Welcome back to my newsletter. Hope you had a fun May.
For those who don't know, I'm Nina Khera. You may have met me during a meeting, or at the latest networking event in Boston. I'm a 17-year-old human longevity researcher who's working on projects in the field of Alzheimer’s, longevity, and brain aging!
This month I’ve continued to do work on Biotein, a summer program idea, a project focused on Alzheimer’s, learning the fundamentals of chemistry + physics and school (graduating!).
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Biotein
We got some initial results from our most recent study and are now beginning next steps! We’re planning to keep them private for now as they materialize, and will give more updates on this shortly.
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Mindsets and Philosophy
Here are some thoughts I’ve been having!
Good poetry touches peoples’ souls. It may only touch one person (e.g. yourself)’s soul but at least someone identified with it. This is why good is so subjective as well. Different peoples’ souls respond differently to different works. For example, I love poetry that zeroes in on a subtle/small thing and expands it into an entire universe of meaning. But others want more information, and more focus on patterns.
It’s hard to keep yourself accountable to goals that are flexible. At one point, accountability with friends is probably one of the best options? I think peer pressure + real consequences can make a big impact in how motivated you feel to do something. Especially when the consequences involve money (lol!). Has anyone else found anything more or similarly useful for them? It’s just so easy to say that you can push X deadline a little or just do something a little later. Reminding yourself of your motivations can help too.
As a side note, I find I should improve at only committing to things that I have the space and time to do (and not, instead, saying that I could “probably do X” 2 months in advance and then panicking 2 months later). Not sure if anyone else relates.
A lot of angst about the future comes from sheer uncertainty about what’s going to happen. And, of course, it’s hard to be certain, but I find something that helps is remembering that I am likely to get all the things I am anxious about finding (friends in college, a good routine, etc) and if not, I have resources available to help (which, of course, I am super fortunate for). If you, at any point, have high nerves or doubts about the future, I highly recommend a two-hour walk filled with voicenotes and reminders that life is more certain than you think.
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Knowledge Bytes
Here are some recommendations from the month!
- Cool AI Model: Gandalf! Try to convince it to give you the password. I dare you.
- Interesting Blog: Nintil. I especially like the bets section (and general blog). I recommend the longevity FAQ!
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Shoutouts
Here are some fun shoutouts:
Thank you Dr. Wolfe, Dan, and Dr. Moody for all of your help with not only our study, but our analysis of it + planned next steps afterwards.
Thank you to Ravi for being an amazing mentor, and for all your help with the Alzheimer’s project.
Thank you to every single one of my teachers + adult mentors over the course of the past four years. I have grown immeasurably with your help, and am looking forward to experiencing the next four years of my life.
Thank you to everyone reading this. Even if I didn't mention you this month. you probably helped me a lot. Thank you!
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Next Month
In June, I’ll be working on Biotein, starting data science work with Alio, summer program-planning, coding, learning more chemistry, and continuing my work on Alzheimer’s!
Reach out to me if you want to talk about human longevity, brain aging, (or just life sciences in general) or anything else honestly!
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nina-khera-115b5a175/
Personal Website: https://ninakhera.com/
Email: kheranina@gmail.com (or just reply to this email)