Sometimes you have to understand that there are a lot of events in life that are out of your control. Life still moves on while you're in graduate school and death is stranger to no one. I found out this week that my uncle passed away. And to be honest, it has been quite difficult to process his death, while at the same time focusing on my research. Yesterday I cried while doing experiments, in between experiments, and during my lunch break. I'm sure my lab-mates probably thought I was having a mental breakdown. No one asked if I was ok, yet at the same time, I did not want to discuss my family member's death with anyone.
I wanted to grieve, yet I felt that I had to at least be level headed while in the lab. I felt that the demands of grad school needed me to be strong and move on. Even though I wanted to purchase a plane ticket and mourn with my family, I knew I couldn't because I am behind on experiments and didn't think my PI would give me the time off. My thesis submission is next Friday and my defense at the end of this month.
So, I did my best today to push through and focus on what I had planned. And so far, I'm feeling hopeful that I can generate some data by the end of this week or early next week. In science, it's all about telling a convincing story with the results you generate. And that can take a lot of time, especially when you need to compare your research to work that has already been done. Then the pinnacle aspect of science is explaining how your research contributes to the gap in knowledge within the field.
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