When I got accepted into the HHRF program, my parents and I were pretty excited. To be completely honest, my parents were probably more excited than I was. While of course I was happy and elated to A) have something to do over the summer, B) start doing research with a Duke professor for pay and C) live on campus for free, a little part of me was kind of nervous. What if I don’t like the lab I’m in? What if I perform really poorly? What if I don’t make any friends? So when we were asked to write about our expectations for the summer, I had to really think about my answer. I knew I wasn’t expecting to cure cancer or achieve some extraordinary scientific breakthrough, but beyond that I wasn’t quite sure.
After one week, I think I have a better idea of what I hope to achieve for the rest of the summer. Spending five days in a research lab has shown me that “doing science” for research is not the same as a lab for a college source. In real research, there are so many unknowns, whereas in a class, you pretty much know what you’re going to get and what you expect to happen. I’m hoping that I learn more about science as a process, and learn to enjoy that process.
Additionally, I’m aiming to narrow my interests a little more. Like most rising sophomores (I would like to assume, at least), I’m not completely sure what I want to study, or what kind of research/topics really interest me the most. Hopefully, after this summer of working in a metabolic engineering lab with some work in molecular biology and analytical chemistry, I will (maybe) figure out what I really enjoy doing, or at the very least what I don’t mind doing.
Overall, I really just hope that I enjoy myself this summer- both in and out of the lab. Regardless of where my scientific research actually leads, I think I’ll really enjoy the experience of being exposed to science in this way and getting to know my HHRF peers.
