Normally in life there’s a penalty for tardiness, but the Howard Hughes Program is hardly real life. A great stipend, free housing, and the opportunity to take on a research project as an undergrad under experienced and supportive faculty, are just some of the benefits of the program. It’s more like an intellectual resort, and in this resort sometimes you even get rewarded for being a little late. This is what happened to me, when I remembered Tuesday morning that I never did the blog post on my favorite seminar, which was due two days prior. This also happened to be the same morning that Dr. Lefkowitz came and delivered my favorite seminar of the program. Funny how things just seem to work out here (I even managed to pull my poster together by yesterday’s deadline, which is nothing short of a miracle). So now I have something to write about.
To me what set Dr. Lefkowitz’s lecture apart from the others was that the focus was not on his research, but his life’s story. While hearing about other’s research is informative and interesting, as an undergrad still unsure of where my future is headed, I love hearing other’s stories, the journeys they went through, how they arrived at their current place in life, and the lessons they learned along the way. This is exactly what Dr. Lefkowitz delivered.
What resonated the most with me is when he described his two “callings,” and how something he never had any interest in and thought he was no good at (research) ended up being not only his calling, but his life’s work. Similarly to him I thought for many years I would by a physician, but for me that interest has been slowly fading and I’ve been exploring other avenues in science, one of which is research. It’s easy as an undergrad, especially in the sciences, to be too focused on the future and where you’re going that you altogether forget to enjoy the present. His take-home message “explore as many new things as you can now and find your calling” was particularly inspiring to me, and as a whole I think his lecture will be hugely influential to me as I search for my calling.
Thank you for coming to speak to us Dr. Lefkowitz, and sorry this is a little late Dr. G.
Matt
