For my cabinet of curiosities, I wanted to represent my four years at Lehigh. I wanted to focus on my journey as a chemical engineer, the hobbies I have done each year, and the art projects I have done. I also wanted to put some of my happiest memories in each box.
Freshman Year (Year #1): My favorite chemistry book is in the back and I looked at it a lot during my prerequisite classes. My main hobbies were being a part of the Formula 1 team and dancing. These are highlighted by the safety goggles, the white shirt I wore for Fusion, and the jazz shoe. I also wanted to show my favorite card game from freshman year. Finally I have two pieces from my trip to Europe which was my first time ever leaving the country and was such an exciting experience. I can’t wait to go back. There are no art projects freshman year because I was convinced I could not do anything artistic.
Sophomore Year (Year #2): This year I was officially enrolled in the chemical engineering program and taking classes to learn how to thrive in my future. To represent my hobbies and how I have passed the time, I danced as shown by the tap shoe, went to the beach as shown by the shovel, and worked at the chemical engineering department as shown by the earrings one of the women from the office made me. The mug represents the first craft I had attempted in college, I went to Color Me Mine with my roommate and we sat and painted for hours.
Junior Year (Year #3): Junior year I was learning more and more for my major and found that my favorite class was mathematical modeling as represented by the book. For hobbies, I joined the rugby team and went traveling. The Aloha shirt was from my trip to Hawaii and I took an impromptu trip to Hershey park junior year. For art projects, my family started doing painting with a twist during vacation so we painted a fish. I felt that junior year would not be properly represented without a mask. Finally, there is a prayer card because as much fun as I had junior year it was also my hardest year, emotionally, at Lehigh. I lost my grandma in October and it made my year a lot harder to see all of the fun that I was having. Looking back now and making this box, I see how wonderful the year truly was.
Senior Year (Year #4): I did not add anything for my major since I am practically done. For hobbies, I play a lot of cards and go to the gym as often as possible. For art projects, I started painting for fun, I took costume design, and took sculpture. I learned to love fashion and drawing and realized there is so much more to sculpture than making things out of clay. Finally, I put my car keys because I made my first adult purchase and bought a new car.
The jumpsuit above the “cabinet” is a Nomex suit I got while co-oping at the company I will be working for starting in July, Air Products.