Firstly I need to apologise for slacking with my daily (or I should rather say weekly now) updates on how my lab adventure is going! I was definitely sucked into my first week of quite intense work and confusion over way too many things but hopefully you will enjoy this wee blog post:))

As I was thinking about the lab work after my second day of research, I came to the conclusion that this might be one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done (and it’s quite important to note that I haven’t done that much of an actual lab work yet). I must say that it’s quite different than anything that one is ever taught in biology or chemistry classes; there is no instruction sheet that tells you what you have to do or your lab friends you can be confused over the task with. After all, at some point you will be probably left in the lab on your own and you will have to start making your own decisions, whether they are right or not and whether you like it or not.

The second day was definitely another prep day because, as it turns out, science is not all about mixing colourful liquids, but also about preparing your own reagents, doing math and trying not to be confused all the time. Hence, today was the right time to prepare the samples (20 brain chunks to be precise) I’m going to be working with for the next few weeks. Getting used to the idea that I’m using samples that once belonged to living, breathing and feeling organism was definitely an adjustment, especially given that Ratatouille is my favourite Disney movie of all times. Hard feelings or not, I needed to get on with work so I could conduct the first experiment the next day. To make the process a little bit easier, I put Reputation on (I’m quite a Swiftie- negative influence of my wonderful girlfriend), which definitely brighten up the lab a little bit.

I must confess that the next day was a total mess: everything that could have gone wrong probably did. I started off with finishing off all of my samples (fortunately at least this part was not a disaster). However, as I went on with starting my first experiment, the problems began: not only math turned out to be more challenging than I have expected but also I run out of the key reagent in the middle of my experiment! What’s more, once I have analysed the data I got, the numbers were definitely not on my side either- they had way too many zeros for my taste- meaning that I must have done mistake somewhere. As I want to show in this blog a completely honest experience from research, I must say that this day was also the first day that saw my tears. Research is definitely not easy but I’m giving myself grace- I’m doing my best and it’s all I can be asked to do.

As I’m writing the rest of my post today, I can say that how we feel about our research changes from day to day. Yesterday was definitely challenging and doubting whereas 24 hours changed my perspective on things drastically! The day started off with the meeting with my supervisor, during which I expressed all my fears and problems which… turned out to be completely normal part of the lab experience! As a result, I was not only shown how to prepare myself the reagent I was lacking but also I understood why I might have gotten the wrong results from experiment day before. I also had a chance to observe amazing work done by other PhD students working in my lab (absolutely amazing people) and talk with them about their research. Lastly, I also found a super helpful paper (which was released only few months ago!) and I had my favourite sandwich for lunch. The weather today was also on my side so I managed to get some vitamin D while sitting outside, and enjoying the sun<3

I really hope that these scribbles help everyone who’s struggling with their own research- it’s not easy but hey, we’re all doing it! Well done for us:)) See you all in the next blog post!