by Raqeeba Kassiem
As my honours year comes to a close, I can honestly say that my postgraduate experience has given me a taste of what the research world is really like. It’s helped me figure out what I like and don’t like. Whenever I tried to explain my field of study—immunology—to family members, I was met with a lot of puzzled looks. But you know what? Those moments actually helped me realize that this is where I’m meant to be, and they sparked a genuine love for the subject. At first, I had no idea what I was getting into, which made it tricky to explain what I was studying. But as I attended various lectures, seminars, and lab sessions, I started to appreciate those learning moments that shaped my understanding. Just recently, while chatting about immunology with a family member at a braai, I noticed how engaged she became as I spoke. Hearing myself articulate my thoughts made me realize that I truly belong in this field.
This journey hasn’t been a walk in the park. I learned the hard way that diving into immunology means going down the rabbit hole every single time—there’s never just one clear answer. At the start of the year, I was really tough on myself when it came to picking up lab techniques and keeping up with lectures. However, the supportive learning environment at UCT showed me that you often don’t get good at something until you’ve struggled with it for a bit. It is often said that to endure the “how” part of any process, you need to understand the “why” and I think for me that “why” is establishing myself as a scientist in the field of immunology.
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