"Crossfit has helped a lot because you are completely out of mental space at that time. I started almost two years ago. I like that it’s very straightforward. With chemistry there’s a lot of different factors that go into stuff, but with Crossfit if you do the movements right and do them consistently, you’re going to have bad days but you’re going to have progress. I like the gym mentality and the community. It’s the people. I go five days a week at 5:30am so I see the same people. One of the reasons I came [to Virginia Tech] was the community that I felt, but it’s nice to have people that aren’t related to chemistry. If you vent about your project, they’re not going to ask specifics about your research and that’s nice. They also remind people that grad school is not your entire life and it’s just a small portion of your life, you just gotta get through it." - Abby Chinn