I am pretty sure that Confucius said something along the lines of “you’ll never work a day in your life if you pursue your passion.” While this is not the exact quote due to copyright infringement, it still serves the same purpose. I.e., do what you love and it will never feel like work. Luckily, at the prime age of twenty-one years, I have found my passion: research. Before you yawn, take into consideration another Confucius quote, “to each their own.” Well, Confucius may not have said that, but the details are cloudy. He did say, however, “Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.” That is more like it.
Wait, wait, wait, what does Confucius have anything to do with DIS Stockholm? Good question. Although our dear friend lived thousands of miles and years away from the location and creation of this program, his words still manage to penetrate its core. You see, my passion for research led me here. The Biomedical Lab allows me to put my passion into practice with first-hand, in-lab experience. I spend each day learning about the underlying principles of the field. The most important thing I have learned is patience. Research takes time and a whole lot of patience. Experiments may not go your way the first, second, third, or fourth time you run them. But, who doesn’t love pipetting for hours on end?! I certainly do! It feels amazing when you get results. The pursuit of those results is where my passion comes in. It does not matter how many times I need to run the experiment, it does not feel like work because of how much I love what I am doing.
Inside Karolinska Flemingsberg
Biometrics, immunology, and molecular biology. A.K.A. how I have spent the last month in the Biomedical Lab. My classmates and I have pipetted an unimaginable amount, but it was all worth it! We, speaking for myself and my class as a whole, have thoroughly enjoyed our experience in this class. We have gained so much experience by working at both incredible Karolinska Institutet locations. For those of you who are not familiar with KI, it is one of the most renowned medical schools/ hospitals in the world. It exudes professionalism and the people there surely know what they are doing! My class and I had the pleasure of working with researchers and doctors from the institution. We are so lucky to have had the opportunity to spend the summer at KI. It is an experience that I will never forget.
Moving forward to Session 3: I am set to take the four-week Lifespan Psychology course. This course dives into the psychosocial factors that influence an individual over the course of their life. Why is this important to me? Well, because I want to learn about how all the variables in my life have accumulated to shape the person I am today at twenty-one years old. I want to find the foundation on which my passion for neuroscience; and my obsession with steak; and the music I listen to; and all the like is built on. Also, as a bonus, the one-week study tour will take me to Zurich, Switzerland. There, my class and I will visit the Freud-Institut Zürich to further our understanding of what the ‘self’ is in Freudian terms. To quote Freud, “Public self is a conditioned construct of the inner psychological self.” We, as a class, will get to combine these words with the knowledge we obtain from this class in order to learn about ourselves. I cannot wait!
All in all, I have had and will continue to have an incredible summer. From Stockholm to Switzerland and from KI to Freud-Institut, what do I really have to complain about? Nothing. I am perfectly happy, or as Confucius and Freud would say, “what we have and what we enjoy is what we rejoice in.” Well, again, at least something like that.