Health Science Reviews

by Rachel Brown

To say that I was naïve about what this year would hold when I arrived on campus on day one would be an understatement! This year has been far more challenging and stretching than I could have ever anticipated and I’m sure many of my classmates can attest to this too. Not only have I been pushed to step out of my comfort zone and think outside the box, but I have also been humbled as I realized how much there still is to know.

At the beginning of this year, I found myself overwhelmed and feeling completely inadequate. I quickly took matters into my own hands and read all the papers I could and prepped for every lecture like never before. As time went on, the paper presentations felt less daunting, and my mindset started to shift. I fixated less on what I didn’t know and my curiosity about all things cell biology lead me to ask more and more questions. I gained so much valuable insight from the academics that I was interacting with during lectures and found myself even more intrigued.

The holiday provided great processing time and I started off the second semester stronger and with much-needed perspective. I was excited about the start of full-time lab work but little did I know that it would go pear-shaped very soon when a fungal infection presented in my cells. I found myself back in a space of feeling overwhelmed and under immense pressure as the deadlines crept up. I did everything that I could to make sure that the infection didn’t happen again. Naturally, this completely consumed me. I fixated on trying to get rid of this infection and it was all I ever thought about, both inside and outside of the lab. It was only after three batches of cells and three weeks of lost lab work time that I finally managed to rid my cells of the infection.

Upon reflection, I have come to realise how much this taught me about myself and about life as a scientist. Science in very often unpredictable and things don’t always go according to plan. Plans need to change, and adaptations need to be made to gain the best results. In this, I have learnt to trust the process and to not hold onto things so tightly. Learning to deal with setbacks has been something that I have become very familiar with, and I am starting to see the excitement even in the uncertainty.

Although this will go down as my toughest year of studies yet, it has been incredible to see how much I have learnt about myself as I establish new ways of thinking as a scientist! It has been such a privilege to be a part of the research that I am doing, and I am so grateful to have such a supportive supervisor and lab mentor. I have started to see the beauty in trial and error, even if it means fighting with fungi for three weeks… After all, if we knew everything, we wouldn’t need scientists!