Up until college, life was comparably easy. We were given what to study, how to study, and it was just the matter of putting the effort to succeed in the path that was already laid out for us. But when I came to college, I went through a panic phase in the middle of my first semester. What was I supposed to do? What was I supposed to learn? In this vast sea of opportunities, I just didn’t know what to do and envied those who had passion for a particular career, some of whom already seemed like they knew their life plan. One of the things that I first came to realize here at Duke was that college is a place to find out what I wanted to do; the idea was exciting, yet a bit daunting at the same time.
Of the many great guest speakers that I met through this program, Dr. Willard left us a message that I couldn’t agree more with. His falling in love with genetics (X chromosome inactivation!) and his key points (especially about having “passion”) reminded me yet again to follow what “I” wanted to do, what “I” had passion for. Am I genuinely interested in/passionate about answering the question? Do I love what I do? Sometimes it’s so easy to forget that college is a place to explore my passion.
Another memorable point that Dr. Willard mentioned was to “focus on the question, not the techniques.” Although it was relatively a short amount of time, during the 7 weeks of research experience there were some details and manual works that weren’t very interesting. But when I realized what I was doing the details for, my thoughts about the little bothersome details didn’t matter – I’ll be finding out if voluntary exercise will prevent the progressive loss of spatial memory and decline in hippocampal neurogenesis in immunodeficient mice! Dr. Willard gave us a valuable lesson – to look at the bigger picture and not be discouraged or swayed by the details.
I’ve mentioned Dr. Willard here, but I just want thank all of the faculty members here at Duke who came to speak to us. I admire their ambition and passion, and I truly hope that I’ll find my own during the 3 years that I have left here at Duke.
