PRESS PLAY!!!!
While I was unpacking and settling into my new home in Ann Arbor I started diving into a new research project. Luckily, I have an amazing advisor, Mark; who is aware of life outside of physics and didn't except me hit the ground running. I slowly eased my way into this foreign layer of the inner magnetosphere called the plasmasphere while I was adjusting to my new environment.
I started out confident that I would be able to read a couple of papers on the subject and comprehend the material. My first assignment was to read ONE paper and to use it as a guide to come up with my own project. Super, know it all me was like I can handle this, no problem. Oh how I was soooo wrong. I grasped the concept of the general point of the paper but I had no clue of the physical and technical aspect. I was thinking to myself how am I supposed to come up with a summer project if I don't even understand the concept. I did what every other research student would do and find more papers to help me understand the plasmasphere. By the middle of the second week I still DID NOT understand and instead of explaining some key points he assigned me a textbook to read. I figured he wanted me to figure some things out on my own which is the point of research and graduate school. With a better understanding by the end of the second week I started thinking of research projects.
THIRD WEEK APPROACHES...........The illusion of conception can make you so comfortable in your "new world of understanding" until you are shocked back into reality with the realization that you were doing everything wrong.
Let me take a step back and unravel the short version of my experience with RESESS last summer.
RESESS was the second summer research internship I participated in and I was super excited because I was working with the U.S Geological Survey in the Geomagnetism Program. On top of research every Sunday I took a GRE Kaplan class to prepare for the upcoming semester of graduate applications and tests. Since I was new to this particular field I took advantage of the resources that surrounded me like my two mentors, an awesome library, and unlimited journal articles. This was my first introduction to Space Weather. I feel in love with the topic and I was dedicated to the process of learning. Every morning I had to commute to Golden from Boulder which was fine except for there were a limited amount of buses that would pick you up in the morning and bring you back to Boulder in the evening. I was on the 3rd earliest bus in the morning and on the last bus to boulder after work. It was a bit overwhelming at times. All I wanted to do all summer was go backpacking and climbing everyday but that wasn't an option after awhile. I would get depressed, stressed, and angry when I was baffled. Fortunately, I had Diana Prado, a fellow intern, who would knock on my door and force me to have fun. I was able to finish my project a week early with the support of my research mentor, writing mentor, community mentor (Melissa!), and Val. It felt amazing to be able to have everything completed so I biked across the state of Iowa in one of the longest, biggest bike tours in the world called RAGBRAI! I'm not going to lie to anyone and say it was easy because it was quite the opposite. RESESS pushed me to the max but I was able to leave Colorado with a better understanding of:
1.) the type of physics I wanted to study, Space and Planetary Physics
2.) how to successfully write a scientific research paper
3.) how to present my research in a clear and concise way
4.) what my limits where and being able to recognize that I was alright to ask for help because no one knows everything or is expected to
Because of last summer and my continuing research with the USGS over the past year I was feeling overconfident about my research abilities but this summer has knocked me off that HIGH horse. It is really true what Aristotle said,
"The more you know, the more you know you don't know"
I'm being reminded of that right now. I had no clue what I was doing. I sat down with Mark and explained to him how I needed some direction for my project. It was that easy to ask and get an answer back. I had to start the process over again by reading different papers and redoing my introduction. This past week Mark has been at the GEM/CEDAR conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I took the opportunity to really sit down and try to understand what I'm trying to do.
FINALLY!!!!!! Yesterday I had a break through and everything just clicked for me. I don't know everything but I understand the fundamentals of my project and the science behind it. Instead of feeling like I was drudging through mud up to my waist NOW I feel like I'm swimming.
