Reality, boo-yah!

So one of the more avid readers of the blog made some comments critiquing my blog. He audaciously suggested that my posts all sound like personal pep-talks in an attempt to reframe the graduate school experience. To make things abundantly clear, since I'm not one who likes to mislead others; yes, I am absolutely trying to brain-wash myself into enjoying the phenomenally humbling and depressing process that is graduate school. That is the whole point of this blog! My readership is intelligent! Wonderful!! I guess aside from the personal brainwashing, some other unfortunate souls may find themselves in my position and find my musings and coping strategies useful or encouraging, or at the very least, let them know that their struggles are not unique. Why that helps us humans, I don't know, but we always feel better if we know others have gone through a difficulty through which we are struggling. Its interesting to think how this contrasts with so many individuals desire to be 'unique', but that's another topic for another time.

Back on track... while a difficult and depressing journey is not the case for everyone's graduate school experience, I've ran myself into quite a deep gulch, forging into the scientific world in an area that is not really studied by my lab, or in fact, anyone at my university. This is what my mother calls a "character-building experience" or "learning from your mistakes." It is not for the faint of heart or the sober of mind. My graduate experience has been a case study in how to make poor major decisions. While my mentor is excellent, and does great science, I stuck with a difficult project that led way outside of the lab's experience, let alone, its expertise. For someone who hopes to sail through graduate school, make a contribution to science, and roll out--this would be a very poor choice indeed.

Interestingly though (beware, here comes the personal pep-talk), this is one of those experiences that actually does make you grow. Like in a fraternity initiation (yes, I just compared grad school to Greek life), you must be broken down before you can rise and become one of the group. It is only through that breaking down and rising back up that one is able to truly understand and appreciate the bond of the brotherhood--or in the case of science, any chance at understanding how the best and brightest, the leaders in the field, think; or how you might actually succeed in a scientific career. In the fraternity, if you let the beating get to you, you're a puss and you're out. In science, if you let the depression, the repeated failure, or the complete lack of progress affect your love for science or your intrigue into seemingly asinine pieces of biology, you'll fail. However, if you can handle the internal destruction of your person and morale, letting it roll off you like water off a duck's back, then you can come out on the other side, publish a paper or two, get the letters of recommendation, and move on to the next step where you can do it all over again at the next level, and then maybe, someday, the complete body of your life's work, just might, possibly in a very small way, illuminate some important aspect of biology. In an even more rare situation, this might impact normal people's health care, and subsequently their lives. Finally, like in a fraternity, such rigor and challenges are always much more enjoyable and make complete sense if you have a few brewski's on board. I highly recommend it.