The Indelible Courtney W

Sometimes I just think to myself how glad I am that I won’t be working in a lab someday. That I’ll be a dentist being a dentist, not running experiments somewhere to alter the world as we know it. I love biology, really I do, but I’m just not meant to be a laboratory biologist. At. All. And certainly not a chemist. It’s bad enough that my hands never seem to be steady, but I’m so very OBN about my movements and, in the lab, you need to be aware of yourself. Like, when you’re preparing a gel for electrophoresis (as we were today). If you don’t know, the gel looks a little something like this: That’s the lit up gel. Focus on those little wells.

I was first in class and no one else showed up until twenty minutes into lab time. Because of this, it was decided that I was going to have the misfortune privilege of handling the gel. So, as we start the experiment, Trent says: “Courtney, take the gel!” After telling me the box of ten gels costs 100 dollars. So, that’s 10 dollars a gel, and he hands me the gel. Me. Me. I think he saw my look of apprehension (heavens, I just knew this was a bad idea), because he looks at me and says: “It’s pretty hard to mess this up!”

Not even ten minutes later, guess what? Guess what?

Yes, I, Courtney, managed to mess up the gel. And don’t think I didn’t pray silently from the second he handed me that precious, apparently infallible gel. I have a special talent for defying the odds, I must say. I don’t even know what I did, but one minute the gel is perfect and the next the wells are collapsing in on themselves. With a toothpick, the gel was kinda of saved, but was still funny looking. And to this I must say: I could have told you. Don’t give me the gel again. I love lab, really I do, but I cannot handle the stress sometimes of getting everything correct, especially when there is an expensive gel involved. Again, you don’t want me in your laboratories curing your cancer or whatever.

I just realized how awful this sounds considering I do want to work as dentist, using very sharp specialized machinery in your mouth. OK, so I actually have no problem with this. I mean, I’ve never actually had much experience in this, but I feel confident in my ability to learn and adapt to the ways to the dentist. I’m just so excited and jazzed to learn - so maybe that confidence is the difference? OHOHOHO~ I can’t wait until dental school. I’m going to be one of those scary, evil dentists and frighten your children into adulthood!!!!!!! But, seriously. Don’t give me the gel again, please.

Oh, Thanksgiving is so soon! Learning a lot about tryptophan in bio right now. Can’t wait to dazzle my relations with my knowledge of tryptophan! TOHOOHOOHOOO!

All's gel that ends gel.

Toodle Pip.