4 lab weeks in retrospect.
...To complete my BSc final year project, i had to spend 4 weeks in the lab working on a chosen subject title based on my specialisation. Mine was the functional analysis of the non coding RNA, PRINS, and the role of TWEAK in cell-arrested keratinocytes.
In those four weeks, I ran more PCRs and electrophoresis gels than I care to count, extracted more RNA and protein samples than you care to know and made so much Towbin's and SDS running buffer that by the 2nd week i could make them without the use of my lab book. I had salt on my brow in Bradford's ice-cold winter. I was on a first name basis with all my lab technicians and even made a couple of very good friends among them. I got into labs at 9am and left at 5pm every weekday.
During the first and second week, I simply crashed when I walked through my front door at approximately 5:30pm, only to wake up at 7am and do it all again. I lost sleep and mass over the lab period. I had weeping jags and moments when I felt very, very incompetent. But I also had moments of elation. I watched my cDNA samples come alive as bands on the gel doc system and I felt pride on viewing the florescent marker on my western blot (finally) take form. I actually printed off a copy of the picture and showed it around, after which I pasted it in my self-assigned locker. I might have even named it. I believe it was the same feeling a parent had when her child, her pride and joy, succeeds at a task. It is proof that all the time spent caring for and nurturing it, patiently, hadn't been a waste of time and resources.
While my soles hurt and I left my sedentary lifestyle behind, I laughed long and hard at the jokes Ellie and Habib always had to share and also at Tom's "bursts of gay". I shared my anxiety with Maria and Dr. B helped me grow as a scientist and as a person too. He was open enough that I could share my ideas with him and i never got shot down for them, not even for the crazy ones. It increased my confidence in the lab and I learned to take the initiative and follow my ideas through.
It totally paid off, of course! My project mark was a first and i had Dr. B personally congratulate me for that. I take is as a personal victory that he enjoyed reading my paper. That those 2 extra weeks, post-lab period, that i'd spent researching articles, learning to use Endnote, worrying, not sleeping and then worrying some more hadn't been a complete wasn't of time.
Yea, so in retrospect, my 4 lab weeks were totally awesome! In no small part thanks to the people i spent it with. From my supervisor to the lab techs.. Thank you is hardly enough.
Juicy Raindrops!
