“You’re becoming a professional member of academia and you’re becoming a respected researcher u have to act like it!” Listen tho,,, I was raised in the hood u can’t just expect me to be a proper science hoe do u have any fucking idea how hard it is to disarm stupid ass opinions with academic papers instead of just poppin off because let me tell you the restraint is IMMENSE

The BEST thing about working in physics academia was that about 90% of the ppl I worked with were from other countries and were super excited to introduce us to their cultural foods. Every thursday was sushi day bc we had a lot of grad students from Japan and Korea and they would teach us how to make good sushi and there was a Romanian postdoc who literally had an entire bookshelf of teas he had acquired from around the world and at about 2pm he would make his rounds around the department asking for tea requests and one of my profs was from Greese and he would make food to bring to us during summer cookouts and GOD it was the BEST learning to cook from them

OKAY I think I realized what pisses me off the most about Newton’s ooc behavior in Pac Rim 2.

When I watched the first movie in 2013, I was 16. I was trying to decide what I wanted to do with my life. I knew science or computers, something STEM. I thought I would have to forfeit parts of my personality to chase for a spot in academia so I shied away from astrophysics. Frankly, I’m from the slums. I went to an inner city school. I’d been suspended (skipping class) and in fights (defending a kid that kept getting bullied) and hell, I’ve even been in the back of a cop car before (okay that one was for sneaking into an abandoned building). I wasn’t an ‘aggressive’ person, per se, but I stood up for what I believed in and that’s usually what got my ass in trouble. I was slated to be a shop rat like my father was.

I thought I’d have to give all that up to be “proper” in academia.

But I saw Pac Rim and I saw Newt and I loved him. He was colorful and loud and silly and brilliant. And I kinda adopted a mentality of “fuck it, I’ll be as ridiculous as I want. I’ll let my intellect and my accomplishments speak for me” and that’s pretty much what I did. I was the youngest person hired in the department to do physics research. I was in 500 level classes by my 2nd year, and 700 level classes by my 3rd. I was published by the beginning of my 3rd year. I could keep pace with my profs talking about physics. I went to our biweekly guest lectures and I was almost ALWAYS the only student that asked questions.

All that while being colorful and loud and myself. When I got published I had pink hair, piercings, and I wore a tie because fuck it I didn’t want to wear a dress.

And sometimes people would raise an eyebrow “she’s not dressed very professionally..” at which point profs would usually defend “she’s just as accomplished at 20 than we were by 30”

And I was an outspoken protester. I didn’t give a shit. I marched against the Muslim ban. I marched against gun violence. I marched for science in Washington DC. Fuck being an academic if it means I can’t be myself.

And seeing Newton in Pac Rim helped me learn that and it helped me get to where I am today. And to see what they did to him in Pac Rim 2 irks me so much