This begins my fourth week as a
fulltime grad student, and already I have learned more than I could have
thought. Just a little over three weeks ago I was sitting in my orientation
overwhelmed with all of the information, research, and people. During my
orientation, the director of my program said, “90% of what you will learn here,
will be outside of the classroom,” at first I found that hard to believe, but
now I can see why. I have learned a lot about myself in just a short amount of
time.
As a grad assistant, it is part
of my duties to teach labs, and I am assigned to teach in the anatomy lab. Let
me tell you, my first day, I was so nervous, I made myself sick. Then one of my
peers told me “they (the students) are more intimidated/nervous than you,” and
it helped to an extent. I ended up doing okay, but now that I have gotten more
practice, I have gotten more confident, and it is getting much easier. One of
the difficult things is getting over the fact of being wrong, because let’s
face it, I cannot always be right. Being wrong is okay, as long as it does not
become a habit. And with anatomy, I tend to get things mixed up or wrong on
occasion, but now I can brush it off a little easier than I could before. This semester
will probably be one of the most difficult one for me teaching, because, I haven’t
taken anatomy in five years and I need to brush up on and become more confident
with the material. The subsequent semesters, teaching wise should be easier in comparison.
Another item that I have to work
on is finding a mentor and get started on research. Thankfully I started this
summer meeting with faculty to get idea of what I wanted to do, so I am a step
ahead. But the hard part is figuring out who I want to work with. All the
faculty are fantastic, but two of them I really like the research they are
doing. So I ended up deciding the one that I think will challenge me the most.
I don’t have a strong background in the ‘hard sciences’ and my experience with
research is very different from what they are doing, so it will be challenging,
but I am confident I will learn a lot. SO since classes started I have gone to
the lab to learn the techniques and everything that goes into the data
collection. The first day I went in to learn how to do blood draws, and I watched
a second year student go through the procedure as my professor walked me
through it. Then when she was finished, he had me practice, talk about nerve
racking. Needless to say, I did well and got it on my first try! I have since
started on doing the processing of the blood to get the cells, plasma, and
serum that we will further analyze. It is a lot to remember, but getting the
procedures down is the hard part and I can use all the practice I can get. These
first two semester I am primarily going to be helping with data collection for
the second year students’ projects as well as the professor’s projects, which
will give me time to figure out what I want to focus on for my project.
One of the most difficult things
thus far has been trying to figure how to maintain a healthy lifestyle while as
a grad student. My class are long and at night, which makes planning dinners
and exercise a bit more difficult. So far I have found that exercising in the
morning, typically CrossFit or yoga, helps get my day off to a good start.
Running I find the best time in the afternoon. As for eating healthy, I try to
pack a lunch and dinner (on nights with class), so one, I am saving money by
not buying food on campus, and two, it is significantly more healthy than the
food on campus. Grocery shopping takes planning to make sure I am getting
healthy food and not spending too much. But once I have healthy foods I just
prepare and package them, so they are ready for me when I head to campus.
Making sure I have healthy food and exercise are my top priorities, because it
is hard to focus when on an empty stomach, and I am also in a much better mood.
Another one of my top priorities is sleep. I need my sleep, or else I really
fell off. A lot of time I feel like an old lady, because I am typically going
to bed at 9 – 10 o’clock. But I start my say early working out then teaching,
so I have to get enough sleep to feel rested.
Overall, grad school is going
well, it has just taken some adjustment to find my niche in how to get things
done.
