I DID IT!!!

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?!