Research Begins

In approximately 10 hours or less, I'll be starting my summer research program at U.C. Berkeley.  I'll be conducting research under Dr. Lin in the Contact Lens Research Center in Minor Hall.  I'm actually pretty nervous, even though she is a mentor, and there are weekly seminars I feel the pressure to be self-motivated to get whatever research is done completed.

The nervousness stems from my prior research experience in undergrad (U.C. Davis), where it actually didn't pan out to what I expected.  I expected more teaching and "hand-holding" throughout the process, and they expected me to pick up things right away and do them on my own.  So going into the whole thing tomorrow, I need to be more proactive about the whole thing.

Research isn't my forte, and isn't exactly why I went into optometry.  It is essential to optometry, as it is in any field to build the credibility and improve a career.  I'm excited in a way because I don't know what to expect, but my concern is if I can't meet my expectations or my mentors.  However, it's these situation in which I think I excel.  

My assistant coach indirectly put pressure on me to be a certain way at basketball practice today.  I think I showed up to play, and let my game do all the talking.  Of course, my stamina wasn't up to par, and made some mistakes, but the intensity I displayed at practice, hopefully, showed my teammates that I was committed.  Another example of excelling under pressure was when I started working after I graduated.  I was entering an optometry office, where I knew there weren't that many current or former male employees.  The ones that did work through that office were now optometrists, and I felt the pressure to be just as good if not better than those before me.

As far as I'm concerned, summer is just about to begin tomorrow.  Time to get busy :D