Expectations
Before I started the Howard Hughes program, I had dabbled in a couple fields of academic research, including field ecology, so I had a good idea of what I was in for: a lot of physical work, some tedious lab chores, and a bunch of acronyms, tree species, and other lingo to learn. Still, there were a few surprises, which is unsurprising because surprises are inevitable in anything related to science. For example, I knew I would be taking tree cores, but I did not realize how many. I was thinking it would be a number in the double digits, but I soon realized it would be a few hundred at the very least. I also didn’t realize how much work it was to process a tree core. After I get it out, I have to glue it to a wooden blank, let it dry over night, sand it down, do a preliminary count of the rings, and then use a stage to measure the distance between each ring. I also have to enter the data I collect into the computer and check the tree’s species and ID number against the information in the records, which takes a lot more time than you might think. All together, I spend a lot more time processing a core than extracting it.
However, in the long run, these surprises are really just details. What I’m doing in the Clark lab is more or less what I expected. The real potential for surprise will come once the program is over, when I look back and reflect on what I got out of the experience. Right now, I expect that I will have a somewhat better grasp on the principles of ecology, and a much better grasp of what it takes to develop those principles. This expectation is pretty vague, but at this point I have no way of knowing the specific things I will learn or the more intangible impact that the program will have. It only took a couple weeks for me to figure out what my research would be like, but it will probably take at least all eight weeks for me to figure out its effect on me.
