Hello there! My name is Lily Randall, and I’m a Senior studying Geochemistry from Astoria, OR. I’ve always said the West Coast is the best Coast, and that was before I experienced the daily sunshine Southern California has to offer. I enjoy hiking, crochet, and playing games with my friends, so you’ll either find me holed up in my dorm or hiking up in the mountains. Enjoying the outdoors makes it easy to work in my field, thankfully. Currently I’m working on a project in Professor Claire Bucholz’s lab examining origins of igneous rocks in the Pala mining area of California. This work is a fun mix of being out in the field, exploring mines, mapping and sampling rocks, and lab work. The lab analysis is being carried out primarily through the Caltech SURF program this summer. Getting to see a mine in person has been really cool; a very rare opportunity I am grateful to have. We even went underground in the active mine site and tried our hands at digging up minerals. I got to keep a very nice tourmaline, and hopefully I’ll get to go back in the fall.
My favorite Caltech course of all time was Summer Field – six weeks in the middle of nowhere with no cell service and only our own chaos. I’ve never hiked so much in my life, and thank goodness I enjoy camping. I saw my first rattlesnake out there in Northeast Nevada and narrowly dodged my first attack from one too. We were about 2 hours away from the nearest hospital (not counting the time to hike down the mountain), and I was not going to take any chances with that. But I learned a lot, not only about my own strengths but also about geology of Nevada. I’ll never forget the shenanigans we got up to back at the campsite, which included an “Ely Chic” themed cookout on the final day of camp. This class is not for the faint of heart or non geology majors, but there are easier field courses available at Caltech (and I’ve taken nearly all of them so far).
Stepping out of the mountains and rocks, I’ve been heavily involved in my dorm’s leadership group, serving as the Vice President of Page House for a term. I feel like it brought me a lot closer to the people I live with and took me out of my shell a lot more. Now, I frequently play the house’s switch with friends at odd hours of the day; currently I’m trying to master playing Isabelle in Super Smash Bros. Additionally I am a part of the Caltech Track and Field team, on the sprints squad. Nothing beats the feeling of pure adrenaline when you run on a relay, from watching your teammate run the stick around the track right into your hands, to trying your best to hold off other talented runners. I love how track keeps me outside and active during the year.
As I mentioned, I’m big into crocheting in my free time and I keep a container full of yarn in my room at all times. Seriously. Every time I start to chip away at it and create a bunch of projects, some craft store has a sale and suddenly I’m restocked. Someone should study how this phenomenon occurs because it beats me. I frequently go to The Huntington Library and Gardens, when I have the time, to see all the wonderful plants I can only dream of being able to take care of. Currently the plant I’ve had the longest is the artificial Christmas tree that is in my room – I’ve kept it since freshmen year. I’d always encourage other students to get off campus from time to time if they can. Caltech is nested so close to so many other cities or nature scenes that there is something for everyone. You just have to go find it. Stay tuned for future blog posts, most likely talking about news on a shiny rock of interest or silly events and things happening around my dorm. I’m excited to be able to make content, and I’ll catch you in the next posts!
