I honestly didn’t know what research was or why students went to grad school before this summer. I had never talked to someone who was in graduate school or was working in a lab. The whole idea of research was very foreign to me. I never realized to what extent students could take their research to start making discoveries. I had heard of discoveries made in research labs before, but I never put much thought into how those discoveries came about. It was very interesting to see all the details and steps that go into producing results.
I really do find the results and discoveries of research fascinating, but I’m not sure if I really enjoy the process to get them. I like to feel productive, so when I spend a week on an experiment that fails, I feel like I haven’t accomplished anything and I wasted my time. I like to be able to have tangible results for my effort. Although laboratory research may be too slow for me, I am going to continue working in my lab next semester to see if I am able to grasp a better depth in my research. I am hoping that once I see more results and implications for the experiments I am running, I will gain a better appreciation for research. I’m so thankful that this program was able to introduce me to research early in my undergraduate career, so that I will have the time to explore all of its possibilities and see if it is career path I want to pursue.
