HXC.

I walked into my very first lab meeting this afternoon and came out with goosebumps.
These people are hardcore.
I know I'm a freshman, but I've worked hard, and I pride myself on knowing my biology/physiology better than most of my demographic. During the course of this meeting, however, I was blown entirely out of the water, and I can honestly tell you that I enjoyed every second. I'm working with one junior, a group of seniors, two grad students and a full professor on the degenerative cartilage link between osteoarthritis and chondrodysplasia, and I am happy to report that compared to these people, I know absolutely nothing. We spent the meeting discussing murile electron microscopy, immunohistochemistry, genotyping, microtomy, and much, much more that soared straight over my head and into the intellectual atmosphere.

This doesn't happen often.
In fact, I don't think it's ever happened.

I walked out completely lost, but completely ecstatic that these people think I, as a barely-18-year-old freshman girl, have the potential to comprehend and contribute to all this. Remember, at BYU, sophomore boys are 21 (LDS mission). This makes me four to six years younger than anyone else on the team, and that's not counting the grad students, either.
"Any questions?" the professor asked when we finished, turning to face me.
At this point, I was both overwhelmed and entirely speechless.
"Um...hours?" I managed to choke out. "I need to know when everyone is going to be here, so I can learn..."