Science = Awesome, plus a free derail.

The whole point of education, from the very first day of preschool or kindergarten, is to better understand and interact with the world around you.  This includes both the natural world and the human environment.  Where this education and its pursuit of knowledge ends, as well as it particular direction or focus, is, largely, a personal choice.

 

I was first introduced to academia when one of my uncles was pursuing his Ph.D. in hydrogeology (I don't know if he got it; I'm thinking not), I really didn't understand it.  I actually really didn't even understand how higher education worked; every teacher I had ever had treated college as some distant mystical land you would only reach if you were extremely fortunate.  Furthermore, the concept of theses, dissertations, and the like, were totally foreign to me.  I remember asking him what a thesis and dissertation were, and he told me that they were basically a combination of a question he had asked about the field, and his work to find and answer.  I then asked him, "Well, won't people run out of questions?"

 

This was maybe my freshman or sophomore year of high school.  Needless to say, I've come a long way from there, and I'm maybe only a third of where I want to be.  Wherever that is.

 

I spent the better part of yesterday discussing scientific papers, listening in on a conversation about the organization of science and research institutions, making mutations, and helping set up equipment for a whole new scientific project in the lab.  I love this job and this work, but above all else, science in general.  I know it sounds boring, but hidden in my day yesterday, which might not be evident from by brief description, was a huge breadth of activity which rivalled my typical day at Columbia.  This is the beauty of science, and working within the field in a place that is challenging and invigorating.  Unfortunately, this experience varies greatly by workplace, but I'm glad I found this one.