What I learned in Boating School is…

boatingschool

“Floor it?”

While of course I’m not enrolled in Mrs. Puff’s Boating School, this week me and Spongebob have shared this expression on more than one occasion. Specifically, whenever someone in my lab asks me a question. God forbid it’s related to math or chemistry, which it almost always is. A few days ago, my mentor asked me about the weight of water. Easy, right? Wrong. I spent about five minutes babbling and starting sentences that I never finished. “Isn’t it…Well, like it’s…I learned this before…” The ironic thing is that I knew the density of water, but I didn’t trust myself enough to believe that I was right.

The one major thing that I want to gain from this program is confidence. I hope to get to a point where I’m not afraid to answer a question whether I know the answer or not. After reflecting on what I’ve done this week in lab, it seemed silly to me that I spent 5 days of basically non-stop practice pipetting. But then I also remember how clumsy and scared of messing up I was on day one. Now, after disposing of my own weight’s worth of pipette tips, I am not only better from a technique standpoint, but I also have a lot more faith in my ability to use pipettes. Big or small, multi or single-channel, clip tip or not… You get the idea. And while learning about how to use various pipettes is an undeniably useful skill, so far, the biggest thing that I’ve learned in Dr. Haynes’ Boating School is that I am surrounded by amazing people who are always willing to help me when I don’t know something.  Unfortunately, I think my parents are expecting me to return home with a Nobel Prize but I think I’ll just return home and not sweat when I’m asked a question.

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