Mis expectaciones
So, I'm on Week 2 (Day 9) of the Howard Hughes program, and already I've learned so so so much. On day 1, I didn't learn much of anything - I just feverishly copied down everything Cathy (post-doc mentor) said (this still happens on occasion, but not too often). Now, I'm starting to get the hang of things, and I'm also doing more things on my own.
This summer, I want to grow more confident in my knowledge of molecular biology and cancer. I hope to be able to come into the lab in the morning and know exactly how I'm going to spend my time that day. I want to lose the feeling of constantly being scared that I'm about to mess up something.
Though I've been reading a lot of papers, it's been very hard for the information within to really "sink in"; as a result, it's hard for me to keep the big picture in mind. Whether this requires more studying on my part or just continued immersion in the lab atmosphere, I don't know - but by the end of the summer, I want to be able to talk about my research and the surrounding scientific principles (the TGF-beta signalling pathway and how it relates to colon cancer, the various parts of the TGF-beta family, etc) with confidence and ease, as well as be able to explain WHY I'm doing all the things I'm doing, instead of just doing them because I know they have to be done.
I hope I come out of this program with a plan. Throughout freshman year, I kind of went through the motions without having a goal or a plan - I just knew I wasn't pre-med (this undoubtedly helped my stress level). However, it isn't good not to have a goal, because without a goal, there is little motivation to do anything! So, whether I plan on working with TGF-beta in the future or if the work I'm doing now leads me somewhere else, either way I want to know something by the end of these eight weeks.
