User:Samarsden
Sam Marsden
Sam Marsden is a member of the UMass Chemical Engineering class of 2021, where he is anticipating on graduating with honors and a certificate in the material science program. In Spring 2020 he participated in a microfluidics course under instructor Sarah Perry. This class was one of his most engaging and fun classes that he had taken thus far in his college career, his only disappointment was that it took him three years to get to the point where he was actually enjoying a chemical engineering class.
Sam wants to one day go into research and development engineering, after receiving his PhD in polymer science. Outside of class, Sam was president of his schools oSTEM chapter for the 2019 and 2020 calendar years. He also tries to keep up an active social life, participate in physical exercise, and has been active in a research group since the spring of his freshman year (which he was also introduced to courtesy of Prof. Sarah Perry). He is passionate about environmental consciousness, promoting diversity in the workplace, and baking food for his friends. Sam feels most comfortable when he's so lost in his work in either the lab or the kitchen. However, Sam is wary that his passion for his work and his desire to make people around him proud will lead to him getting taken advantage of in the workplace, but he hopes that he will be able to recognize that and overcome. He also hopes that he will be able to foster a social life who will look out for him as he does for them.
In his teenage years, Sam sought out a meaning to his life - a grand purpose that he could be driven towards. He was terrified that after his death the universe would not remember him at all. Then he was told about the violin. A violin is a very well-known instrument, but even with its prevalence, the average person does not know who created the first one. Nevertheless, violins and instruments similar exist in the world, so surely their creator had done something right. Sam then became convinced that the meaning of life (for him, he feels that a meaning of life is a personal journey that everybody must go through on their own to find their own definition) wasn't to be known for the rest of history, but to leave the world in a better place than when he entered. At first he thought this meant inventing or discovering something that would help future generations as they build upon his own work. However, while this is a nice goal to strive for (and indeed he still does on some level), he realized that it would be so easy to fail at life with this mindset, and he did not want to live in a life where it was possible to fail overall. So the definition was broadened - every time we do or create something that helps somebody further down, that brings a smile or two to the world, that inspires somebody to action, that is when we accomplish the meaning of life. With every up and down in his life since then he has felt peace knowing that whatever his next step may be, he would surely be able to make the world a brighter place, even if in the smallest senses.
Eventually, when he feels fulfilled with his life in the polymers and material industry (and has accumulated enough money), he will retire early and spend the rest of his days engaging in his hobbies like molecular gastronomy and writing stories while working part time in a small-town bakery, cherishing every smile he can bring to the world.
