Going from one world to another

I attended a master thesis presentation today. The candidate got grilled badly. Soon I will stand there answering seemingly impossible questions. When you first step foot at the University as a passionate but yet oblivious and inexperienced student, who thinks that soon science will save the world, you look with awe at the real scientists who hide in the corridors that you have no access to. Once or twice during your three years doing your Bachelor’s you’ll get the privilege to enter an actual research-lab or pass through one of the research corridors on your way to a meeting about why you didn’t get that extra point on your finals, and every time you do, you wonder whom these super-people are. Although I have not yet received my master’s degree, I have finally upgraded, for all intents and purposes, from a mortal student to a researcher. It feel’s great to pass the group of student’s discussing their last exam gesticulating with coffee-filled paper mugs on my way to my lab bench, in the real lab. I will never again write an exam and much less stand around in a circle drinking my coffee – I have access to the staff lunch- room now. Even though I don’t feel like a student any more, doing proper research and all, there is still this lingering worrying about how it all will turn out in the end. The day that I am done, actually done, I will feel a stress relief from half a decade of demanding studies. Don’t get me wrong, the student life is great, but so is not depending on your brain performing summersaults in order to receive the next month’s paycheck. The week that passed was quite busy with a lot of time spent comparing genomes from different species, something that sounds a lot more difficult that it is. But it is time consuming. The laboratory equipment needed for proceeding with the analysis that we ordered didn’t show up today, so I found myself with a lot of time on my hands. This extra time comes in handy, as I urgently need to prepare myself for my upcoming summer job in the British Virgin Islands with ActionQuest. I will be the dive-director and plan all the diving activities on a sailing program for youths. This type of preparation doesn’t require me to sit in an office, so I chose to walk back to my dock and work in the sun.