End of the Road
The past seven weeks have been really amazing, tiring but amazing!!! I've learned a lot about biology and met many new and interesting people. This week has been a little slow, due to the fact that my poster and research is done, but its given me a lot of time to think, mostly to look a colleges online and work on summer assignments for the upcoming year.
I really enjoyed the program, mostly because it was so different from anything that I've done before, it was a new enivroment, full of new experiences. I go to school at Durham School of the Arts, which as you would expect, science isn't really stressed or anything. This year will also have been my seventh year there. What this means is that I haven't really been exposed to science in the same way with the program, it goes in depth in a way that I never really thought about before. Also all the people in the program really enjoyed science and everything that goes along with it, which again isn't something that's as abundant at DSA. My point is that its very different from what I'm used to and I really enjoyed it because of that. My teacher, Mr. Berry, says that the way a person grows and learns is by putting themselves out there into where they're uncomfortable. I think this was really true for me, and for that I'm really happy.
As for what happens next, I still want to contiue my interests in science. However not in biology. I kind of felt this way before the program, but I wasn't quite sure. Now don't misunderstand, I had a great time in my lab and researching and making taqman plates and running PCR reaction and interpreting the datat and finally making a poster. But its not something that I'm passionate or fascinated about enough to contiue to persue (in life or as a college degree). So in that sense I got an answer about what I want to do with myself, which I was hoping would come along, but I'm still left with many options to think and choose from.
I want to thank everyone in the Howard Hughes Program: Debbie, Kriti, Tanya and Chris for helping me put together the poster and for working in the program. I also want to that the CHG: Mike, Karen, Kaia, Melanie, Heidi and Megan for training me in the lab and answering all the questions I had. For editing my abstract, helping me understand what I was doing, and making me feel like a part of the lab! And helping me with my chemistry assignment when I was lost (thanks Megan!). I would especially like to thank Dr. Allison for being my mentor and giving me a research project for the summer. I learned so much, and I had a great time!
