Hi everyone!
Welcome to my final update for WAGSFP. *insert crying emoji here* As my final blog post, I’d like to write an overall summary of things I’ve learned about research, and myself through this opportunity this summer.
I’m very grateful there was a chance to continue research through this program in this peculiar summer. All my original plans (and everyone else’s, of course) were scrapped for this summer, and I’m glad having this research program and its structural components was available to maintian a sense of normalcy in schedule and tasks this summer. This might be a little bit TMI, but when I first moved back home, I (and probably many others), completely let myself go. I mean this in terms of discipline, school, eating schedule, daily hygiene, and human interaction. None of my classes had scheduled online attendance other than one discussion. My daily schedule was to fall asleep when the sun came up (around 6am), and then wake up at 3pm. I would lie in bed for another hour or two until I couldn’t ignore my hunger any longer. It would take me three hours to watch a 1.5 hour lecture, and I would do all my work in bed. The classic rule of not doing any work in your bed did not apply with me anymore.
So, I think that I was relieved to find out the option of a virtual research program was still available. I resented being told when to wake up or to eat; I was just miserable with every aspect of the situation. I, like many college students, felt like they were regressing into their high school angst stage. My way of rebellion and control was to mess up my “status quo” daily schedule. I needed something to force me to a schedule. When starting research and this program, I had no idea what to expect. I had done a bare amount for my lab that I had recently joined in winter semester, and I wasn’t familiar with my mentor yet. In the period between ending classes and starting research, I moved back onto campus; it was a step for me to become more productive again.
My point is that I’m glad I had this program to keep me sane this summer. College summers are always expected to be productive, so even if I didn’t need this to keep me on more grounded and normal, I would have felt extremely behind in terms of accomplishments and programs in comparison to my peers. I know there are others who were not as lucky, and did not have a productive opportunity at all this summer. I’m not sure how to really express the change in my wellbeing, education, and maybe future this has allowed me. I was able to continue researching for my lab, with pay, in a time where money was a little tighter. I was able to build connections within the faculty and memebrs of my lab so I could continue with more diffiult or complicated projects in my junior year. I learned a lot about new and different perspectives in feminism that would enrich my major (Gender and Health). I was able to develop better reading comprehension and skimming skills that is essential is dense academic papers. I had a patient mentor that taught me some beginner statistical software, and I learned about how to correctly write and cite in APA format (a skill that is never really touched upon, but greatly and specifically necessary in my field).
In conclusion, I know this just seems like a vague summary of my summer research, but this was a bridge as well as a savior to my summer. It kept me busy, and connected to really great resources at Umich. I think it turned my summer around, even if the work itself wasn’t the most exciting and at least I wasn’t decaying in my bed like before. Thanks for everything, WAGSFP 🙂
Joyce