In the time that I’ve spent at my internship, I’ve developed what I like to call a visual friendship. I wait each morning until the clock strikes 11:45 and I rush out to get my lunch. A quick walk upstairs to the break room where I pick up my food and take a sharp right towards a meeting table. I sit and wait, rhythmically tapping the heels of my feet as I organize my things. I plug in my headphones but I wait to put them in my ears. Then she walks in, no older than 50 I think, a lovely lady really. The same line always on repeat, “Hi, how are you?”. I reply ”good” and ask of her the same. We know nothing about each other, we never speak another word. A half smile and a wave to the other as one of us eventually leave. A visual friendship because in reality, we know nothing about each other, but there’s a sort of harmony. An undiscussed agreement to keep this routine even though it would be much simpler to ignore the existence of the other. Yet every day I hurry to see her because in her eyes I catch a glimmer that shows me she’s just as lonely as me. That she seems to understand that were both sitting alone even though we're together. It makes me feel a little less lonely to be me. In a week my internship will be finished and I’ll go back to my old routine. Still, I can’t help but wonder if she’ll question why I’m gone if she’ll even miss me.
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When it comes to the people around me in my internship, they each have their own unique qualities that I would want to further develop in myself. Starting off with Eulalia, I think one of her strongest qualities is that she doesn’t let stepbacks in the workplace keep her from pushing forward. I noticed she had some results in her experiment that she wasn’t hoping for but she didn’t let that stopped her and she continued her testing. Frank, another lab member, is really great at being thorough and organized. He always makes sure to have all his ingredients, supplies and instructions set up with him when he’s preparing to start a PCR. He also makes sure to clearly explain all the steps in the process and even uses analogies so I can better understand. Shannon is extremely dedicated to her work, even staying after hours to perform surgeries on mice and making calls to secure different ingredients for the lab. Paige has really good time management as she has to handle both working in the lab and college classes at the same time. Jennifer is mindful of the fact that a lot of what I’m learning is challenging so she does her best to offer help understanding any of the information on the reading packets we receive. Adriana really goes the extra mile, accompanying me and Ernesto to make sure we receive all of our identification and access cards. Last but not least Sasha, he’s had a lot of patience and understanding when it comes to me filling out paperwork and completing interviews and project discussions with him. All of the staff members each present their own unique qualities that I want to strive to develop in myself as they are all useful in creating an inviting and helpful future work environment. I am and will be for a while, a developing adolescent who still has so much more to learn from the world. The way I do that best is by observing the people around me and I’ve been so lucky to have the opportunity to work with such amazing people. Although none of what they work on is simple or easy, they all push through and keep trying their best because that essentially is their job. Testing out theories and failing over and over until you get it right. I can only admire their perseverance and do my best to follow in their footsteps so that I may hopefully one day be to a child what they are to me, an inspiration.
When walking into the laboratory the main thing that stood out to me was the calm and inviting atmosphere, which was actually the opposite of what I had been expecting. Unlike the overwhelming feeling of the color white everywhere around me and the dozens of delicate glass objects, the staff I am working with all had smiles on their faces and were very eager to know more about me and my internship partner, Ernesto. All of the staff was very open with me and did their best to make me feel comfortable. Although I refrained from asking questions, they actually encouraged us to ask questions because they were aware that the things they work on are very difficult to understand. Even though my age difference with some of the members ranges from 5 to over 15 years I’ve found that I have a lot of common interest with them such as entertainment, food, and hobbies. For example, I, Ernesto, and a coworker Eulalia all watch a show called Game of Thrones and we regularly discuss different theories we all have on the ending of the story. We also talk a lot about cultural differences between us since Eulalia is Indian and I’m Mexican. Whenever I’m working on reading packets in my free time, lab members come over and invite me to work with them or show me some new techniques. They have slowly stopped giving me as much assistance so that I get used to doing a procedure on my own. I appreciate how attentive they are of me and Ernesto so we feel welcome in the lab space. Also, I appreciate how they trust us and are open to answering any of our inquiries. My experience of the laboratory so far would have been completely different if it were not for the caring lab members.
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About the AuthorBringing the inside scoop to what's going on inside the head of an 11th grader trying to organize a piece of her life, through this blog giving you the details of the Nuvia/Hood-Esparza team at High Tech High Chula Vista. Archives
June 2019
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