So my summer research program at UT Southwestern is over! I had an amazing experience, and I'm so glad I got the opportunity to do it, but I'm glad to have a break - I'm ready to have a little mini summer vacation before we go back to school (in a few weeks - yikes!!).
It was one of the most challenging things I've ever done, and I guess that's why I have a combination of relief and accomplishment. I'm relieved that I made it through... successfully! I finally get to take a load off and relax my brain a little bit! I'm really proud of myself that I did it though - I was
completely out of my comfort zone pretty much ALL summer, but I did it! I made a really awesome lesson plan related to what I did this summer, I made a kick-ass poster (it's HUGE - 3x5 feet!), and I feel really good about my presentation I did on Friday - not to mention all the work I did in the lab, which was totally out of my element. I feel like I even made friends from the lab I worked at (I think I got put in the best lab, with the best people possible... I really think it couldn't have been a better group to work with!).
Funny thing about this summer though, is it reinforced what I think I already knew about myself... I love my kids more than I love my content area (which I think is probably a really good thing, especially for middle school!). Case in point? One of the teachers said during the summer, "this program has really made me realize how much I love science" and my first thought was, "this program has really made me realize how much I love
teaching." Don't get me wrong, I love science too - but the process of truly
doing scientific research? As in... not just reading about the latest technologies and learning how the human body works, but
being a scientist... it's very overwhelming and intricate, and just not really my thing. I'm so glad I got to do it this summer though, because now I know about a whole world out there that I didn't really know anything about before - I'm so glad I'll have that experience to be able to share with my kids. It might not be something I would want to do for my career, but I
know some of them would be great at it!
Soooooo yeah. Great experience, great people, SO glad I did it... but glad to have a little break and the countdown to Disney World is ON!!
Here are a few pics from the summer... I have a few more good ones, but I'll have to have the STARS people and my lab send them to me. These are just the ones I have...
 |
| Working on my stains - this was actually WAY harder than you might think... really easy to make one tiny mistake and ruin several days worth of work! |
 |
| Happy Canada Day! We had several die-hard Canadians in the lab :) |
 |
| Me and most of my lab after my presentation - meant so much to me that they all came!! |
 |
| Laura, me, Chantelle, and Gang at Gloria's for a little goodbye party |
 |
| Joachim (my host), Chantelle, and Mieu |
 |
| Colleen, Laura, and Gang (my other host) |
 |
| Dan and his wife Sara and their beautiful baby Julian |
 |
| Tim came to my presentation and to Gloria's - such a wonderful and supportive husband!! |
 |
| My mentor, Chantelle and me (she was awesome!) |
Oh, and one last exciting thing! One of the local Coppell/Irving newspapers is going to put me in a back-to-school feature they're doing called "Meet Your Teacher" (or something like that). How cool is that?!
