Week 5!

I’m largely independent on my projects now. I’ll have 2, if not 3, sets of immuno slides ready for viewing by the end of the week and the practice for DASPEI continues. While the DASPEI is building off of previous research, the immuno is largely exploratory. I’m excited to see whether there are any similarities among the earthworms and other animals. I’ve gotten into the routine of scheduling things appropriately as there are often 1-3 hour gaps between steps and planning out a day or week to maximize what gets done continues to improve my time management and prioritization skills.

Using these weekly blog entries as a gauge for how research is progressing makes me aware of how much training an internship involves before you have the knowledge and hours down to run something independently. I’m still practicing some of these dissections because of the dexterity I need to develop. This is what has surprised me the most.

I’ve learned that when your particular procedure is 3 days long, factoring in incubation periods, it’s not enough to shadow it once and know what to do. I’ve developed more appreciation for researchers and the intellectual humility to acknowledge how little any of us know about the world. Living by myself has also been a challenge- I appreciate the dining hall more now that I need to cook and clean for myself.