It’s official. I’ve finished my third year in college.
I’ve been spending a lot of time lately thinking about my experiences thus far, perhaps because most of my friends will be graduating in just two days from now. I came to Fontbonne leery of the thought of taking on a major as challenging as biology, and, I’ll admit it, I’ve really considered changing majors many times ever since (although oddly, I’ve never quite made it over to the registrar to pick up the correct form for that- call me lazy). Just three years ago, I was staring wide-eyed at my first general biology I assignment, which was on mimicry in the snake world. I didn’t understand the words. I was put into a group with seniors who, for some strange reasons, needed to retake general biology and who had already taken crazy 300- and 400-level biology courses. I had no idea what I was doing in that class.
And look at me now. I’ve finished my chemistry minor. I’m practically finished with my biotechnology concentration, and I already finished the physiology concentration. I’ve even taken an additional independent study human anatomy class (neuroanatomy) for fun. I technically only need to take one more biology class, immunology, and then I will have finished all of the departmental requirements for my degree.
So what have I learned in three years? Mostly, I’ve learned to never quit, even though I say “I quit” on what’s practically a daily basis. I’m scared about what lies ahead as far as GREs and internships and jobs and graduate admissions go, but I think that’s what’s the most exciting thing of all.
But, with school having just ended, I’d like to take some time to just reflect on the memories. The memories of Wednesday Cinema, our rather-new tradition of sitting in the biology seminar room and watching movies while doing homework all day. The memories of taking Molecular Techniques with Dillon and Tim all semester and telling each other to not tell Dr. Paine-Saunders that we spilled buffer all over or that we dropped our Western blot membranes in the sink. The memories of sleepless nights before organic chem tests and of waking up at 2 in the morning before a biochem test only to lie in bed and go through equations and problems over and over again in my head until it was time to get up and ready to go at 5:30am. These and countless other memories will continue to haunt me as I realize that many of my friends will not be back on campus in class with me next fall. But those memories, those bittersweet memories, will in time turn out to be some of the best I’ve ever had.
~ With Two of the Best Friends I’ll Ever Have ~
Tagged as:
Biology,
Friends,
Graduation,
internships,
neuroanatomy
Pour off old media. Wash twice with Hank’s salt solution. Add 5 milliliters of thawed trypsin and pour off. Wait five minutes. Use 5 milliliters of alpha-10 to quench the reaction. Add 1-2 drops of liquid culture to each of two new flasks, which should each contain 20 milliliters of alpha-10. Add 20 milliliters of alpha-10 to the original flask. Incubate all flasks at 37°C and check regularly.
I’ve been working with Dr. Thomasson on his cancer research all year. I’ve been performing the above procedure, which we call “splitting the cells,” since September. But it wasn’t until last week that I truly had an epiphany. I absolutely love working in the lab.
Since I’ve been a biology major, I’ve enjoyed micropipetting and looking through microscopes and figuring out where I may have introduced error into my experiment. However, last week, it just really hit me: I love working in the lab. In honor of the 60th anniversary of the structure of DNA, my molecular techniques class watched a NOVA documentary about Rosalind Franklin’s underestimated role in Watson and Crick’s field-changing work. In the film, one of the interviewed speakers talked about how Franklin didn’t just enjoy science for the end results, as do most scientists, but she enjoyed science for the entire process of it. While watching the documentary, I was sort of taken aback by that statement. I like results, and I like looking at where I go right and wrong. However, I never had really before thought of enjoying the journey of science more than the final destination.
The next day, I was literally just standing at the lab sink washing beakers that I’d previously used for splitting some of Dr. T’s cells. And you know what? I had this huge smile on my face. I was having the best time ever washing those beakers. Have Dr. T and I cured cancer? Definitely not. But just the prospect that we could make an important discovery or that we could be contributing valuable insight to others in the field is something to be proud of.
My friends will tell you that I’m very impatient, and they would be correct. I don’t like to sit around waiting for things to happen. As my friend and fellow blogger Carly would probably say, I like to be a catalyst and make things happen faster than they normally would. That’s probably why I started my newer method of thawing the trypsin enzyme in the water bath before gathering the necessary supplies for the above cell-splitting procedure instead of using my older method, which involved setting up the rest of the supplies and then thawing the frozen enzyme. However, in light of my newfound love of the entire process of science – not just a love of the results – I don’t think that waiting on the trypsin will be as tedious as I once found it to be.
Tagged as:
Biology,
Cancer,
DNA,
research
I’m done. I have a calc test in the morning, but I can’t bring myself to study for it anymore. Yes, at about the spring break mark I start losing motivation pretty fast. The weather turns! I start running again! Who in their right mind would want to be working on applications of derivatives at such a magical time of the year? And anyway, if the turn of the season isn’t enough of a distraction, I have other things on my mind, as per usual, like the looming question of, “What am I going to do this summer?”
I remember fondly the night over winter break that I threatened to change majors once and for all. My father told me something about getting a job over the summer at a hospital (ugh) to up my shot at a dietetics internship, when I stubbornly announced, “Well, I’m thinking about changing majors, sooo…” (“So that’s not going to happen”, in other words.) And then, quite seriously, maybe three days after I made the Big Change, daddy told me that I needed to get a biology internship in a lab this summer. So I began the dreaded task of filling out online applications (does anybody else hate those things? I always find them so ambiguous.) to a couple of really awesome places that I figured I didn’t have much a shot with. Yes, my dad was convinced I had just as good of a chance at getting a spot at the Danforth Center’s internship as all of those other kids who probably have known all their lives they were destined to be scientists. So I applied. I kept looking around for more opportunities, and excitedly applied for a chemistry internship at Sigma-Aldrich as well.
The other day as I was happily (??) doing my calculus, my other best friend Elizabeth (who claims to be a blogger, but whatever) came in and told me about the interview process she underwent for a computer science internship at Sigma. That’s when it hit me: if I get lucky enough to interview there, it’s going to be hard. They’re not going to ask me to talk about a deadline I had to meet, or what my weakest personality trait is (in addition to hating online job applications, I also hate those types of interview questions as well. I suck at them.). They’re going to ask me super technical questions that may require a calculator. And scratch paper. And help from the Chemistry Gods; namely, Zeus, the dog who wrote my all-time favorite book, “Organic Chemistry”:
Don't let the human in the photo fool you.
I’m scared. I heard back from the Danforth Center several weeks ago about my status in the application process, but nothing from Sigma. Do I have a shot at it? Now that I’m finally starting to feel at home in St. Louis, I want to spend the summer here, as I think it would do wonders for my personal growth. At other times, I feel like it may be nice to lifeguard again. I like being outrageously tan. But living here, on my own…it would push me out of my comfort zone to a new degree, as I ‘d have plenty of time to explore and have fun and do the things I don’t have time to do during the school year (or feel too guilty to do).
I wish I had answers to what was going to happen! But until then, I wait, with my fingers crossed that it all works out for the best. I have a feeling that whatever happens will in fact be what’s best for me. I may not see it at first, but it will be (this is pretty much the story of my life this semester, no?).
Hang in there everyone! You can do it!
-Carly
“Soft” by Washed Out
Tagged as:
Biology,
chemistry,
dogs,
internships,
Summer Break
