Busy Bee!

Today was the busiest day I have had at work in a long time. I finished my ELISA test, and it didn't turn out very good. I left work very disappointed in myself. I'm such a perfectionist so I want to get everything right on the first time, but in research and laboratory science that's just not realistic. Sherlin graciously told me to cheer up and not to be so hard on myself, but I tried so hard to do everything right. There's just like a million things that can go wrong and when it's my first time, I'm just reading instructions and trying to follow all of it perfectly. It didn't turn out horribly, just not perfect. There were a lot of math calculations involved with concentrations and stuff. I know I did the calculations right, but I'm pretty sure I pipetted some of it wrong. Tomorrow Doug (my boss) is going to work with me on a protein assay to practice. So all I can do is try to do better next time.

Today at work Brian, the guy who hired me, asked me when I'm taking my MCATs. I told him I'm not planning on medical school. That started a whole conversation with my whole lab pretty much. The truth is, I've been thinking about it a lot. Daniel has told me a few times that he would support me going to medical school. Originally I didn't want to go to medical school because I didn't want to be in school for another 4 years and I didn't want to be a doctor because I didn't want to work long crazy stressful hours. But I have discovered via my coworkers that really it's only two years of school and then two years of on-the-job training (rotations and residency) and that doctors often can work regular hours (like in a family practice). And I was thinking how great it would be to work as a pediatrician and help sick kids. And then Sherlin and Joshua told me that I would be a great candidate for a M.D./Ph.D. Now THAT is ambitious! U of A Phoenix has a program that takes 7 years. So the idea is that I could do research from a clinical perspective. What good is research without applying it to patients anyways, right? The question is, do I want to go to school for that long, and can I afford to go to school that long? I am definitely an overachiever and that matches me. Sherlin told me she thought I should be a doctor because of the kind of person I am. It suits me. I will have to think about it long and hard for the next few years.

I am exhausted. I was busy ALL DAY. Like I didn't have 5 minutes of doing nothing. I have discovered that working in a lab means doing LOTS of dishes. Yuck. I am so tired of washing dishes. This weekend I am doing UMW School of Missions. I just hope that it's not completely boring. And I hope that I learn something. I know that my faith has kind of been on the back burner for a few years. I just keep ignoring it because if I think about it then I feel like I have to put work into it and actually do something about it. So maybe this weekend will inspire me to really work on it. Or maybe not. Daniel and I are planning on finding a methodist church in Denver. Now that we have a car (!!) we can drive to church. I am so ready to go back to Denver. I miss class as crazy as that sounds. I miss learning new things. I used to tell Daniel every evening at dinner all the amazing things I learned that day (usually in psychology or physics). I love science. It makes so much sense and it's so interesting and everything fits together perfectly ordered. Ha. I'm crazy.