I often times find myself with some sort of word or sentence that gets stuck in my head, like one of those annoying pop songs on the radio. When this happens, I find myself most inspired to craft a poem around the word or sentence. I have been like this my whole life; written language has always been my greatest form of expression. It’s an art that is often forgotten when discussing creativity, but I can assure you that written language is in a category of its own.
“Rebecca, why is this relevant to a science internship?”
Well, it’s really not, and that’s kind of the point!
As you all know by now, I was going to be an English teacher when I graduated high school. So when my plans changed and I found my passion for geology, I had very little faith in myself to actually accomplish the goals I had in mind. I was plagued by thoughts of never being that great of a science student in high school. I mean, I received A’s in most of my science classes, but I never truly grasped it like I did with English. So there I was, a community college student sitting in a geology classroom wondering how on earth I’d ever be able to make it through a science degree.
Yet, here I am.
Beginning this internship, many of those feelings of being in the wrong area of academia persisted. I found myself launched into geophysics, having never previously taken a physics course before. I found myself crying the night before I started my work, telling myself I was not good enough for this and I had no right to be in this position.
Yet… here I am, running earthquake data through a detector, looking at each “wiggle” individually, and taking pride in every event I see. Each one is special, and they’ve even developed their own personalities to me. I get so excited when looking through my data, and I truly love my research and the work I’m doing. The coolest part is, it’s become my work, and I’m the one doing it! Isn’t that awesome?!
Reading your blogs, I know I am not the only one who has doubted myself. But let me share this with each of you: everyone is doing a great job. Whenever you all talk about your projects, I see the passion you have for it, and it’s incredible! Even though there was doubt in the beginning, we’ve all come a long way, and I’m proud of all of us!
Next step… finish the research, and rock those presentations! We got this, guys!
-Becca
