Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Choosing memories

"She ruined your poster presentation!"

"You were a lab slave and you didn't even realise it!"

"She used you!"

"She never even went through your poster before you printed it!"

"Don't you dare say you like her!"

Well... all that might the case, however...

She gave me the freedom no other undergrad had... to think for myself

She never expected me to work weekends or work late on weekdays

She used to take my work as her own and help me out when I had classes

She did all my work for me and asked me to take off one week before GRE to study for it

She never treated me like a lab slave and never made me do any of the mundane lab duties for her

She used to do some mundane lab stuff for me without me having to ask

She used to give me long pep talks when I was in doubt about my professional life

She inspired me to be meticulous, neat and efficient about my project work, a qualities I seriously lacked and that made a difference

She bought me a beautiful bracelet for my birthday

She bought me milo on the day I donated blood, to help replenish my fluids

She defended me anytime the big boss lost faith in my project.

She sent me notes of appreciation if I ever came on the weekends to work even though she didnt have to

She never hesitated to tell me I was doing good work every once in a while, when she truly felt I deserved a compliment, she never held back

She treated my work and my project with great respect even though I'm just an undergrad who'd hang around for one year then leave.

She saved my protein (my life!) countless times when it was threatened to be wasted on useless experiments, she was always aware of the amount of work that I put into the project to get it to where it stands

Sure, she might have behaved strange when I was about to leave the lab... sure, she may have been pretty nasty... sure, she ruined my presentation in front of one of my examiners...

But she made me realise how much I love science and research

She made me remember why I'm proud to be a scientist instead of a doctor or engineer!

I choose to remember the 8 months of fun that I had doing research with her rather than the two weeks of hell that she put me through... is that so wrong?

3 comments:

Anusha said...

It's not wrong at all. :)

simplime said...

You know what I think...beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. Very few people can actually make a person look so good, putting all the negatives aside. I think you being yourself, are able to see this side of her, unlike anyone else...m really proud of you :)

doublehead said...

YOu know I could write the same things about my postdoc mentor. For one month he put me through hell after I announced that I am going back to my home country. Otherwise the rest of the 5 years I had spent in his lab, I did have wonderful times and did wonderful research, got me this wonderful job I had always dreamt about. Tough mentors can appear "very nice" after everything is over.