The Challenger
I volunteer in a lab at a cancer research hospital. That job sucks. It was stimulating for the first three weeks, but six months later it has become one of my least favorite things to do.
(I started typing out a description of this job, but then I got paranoid that it would require the use of too many keywords that could lead some random lab person to this page and then I'd be found out. Just rest assured that the job is fucking miserably boring and uninteresting.)
They spent a grand total of two hours training me back in January and I've had very minimal help and supervision since then. Because everyone else in the lab (except the woman who heads it) thinks this project is a waste of time. Along the way I have learned zilch, so this past weekend I decided to quit and focus my energies on studying for the MCAT. At the last second I had the brilliant idea to ask the head of the lab for a letter of recommendation, telling myself "If she says yes, then I'll stay and actually try to get something done."
Unfortunately, she said yes. But she made it conditional on me actually getting something done. This definitely makes sense -- but I still found it annoying. I've been working on this stupid-ass project for MONTHS. But she says she hasn't seen much (because there isn't much to see because the whole thing's been a pretty miserable failure) and then she had the cajones to say this: "Impress me. How's that for a challenge?"
Impress you????? A challenge?????
Okay. Breathe. I'm starting to sweat at the thought of that email. It makes sense. It makes sense. She's definitely right to ask me to give her something to write about. But... I still can't get over the tone. The tone is too much.
She's a pusher. She pushes people. She makes shit happen, and that's one of the ways she does it. If you come to her with an interesting, provocative set of data she'll just come up with ten different things you should try to do with it instead of marveling at what you've accomplished. She'll push you.
I just don't feel like being pushed right now.
I couldn't back down, though. So today I went to the lab and cooked up a ptentially "impressive" project with a PhD student. Now I just have to see if I have time to make it work.
(I started typing out a description of this job, but then I got paranoid that it would require the use of too many keywords that could lead some random lab person to this page and then I'd be found out. Just rest assured that the job is fucking miserably boring and uninteresting.)
They spent a grand total of two hours training me back in January and I've had very minimal help and supervision since then. Because everyone else in the lab (except the woman who heads it) thinks this project is a waste of time. Along the way I have learned zilch, so this past weekend I decided to quit and focus my energies on studying for the MCAT. At the last second I had the brilliant idea to ask the head of the lab for a letter of recommendation, telling myself "If she says yes, then I'll stay and actually try to get something done."
Unfortunately, she said yes. But she made it conditional on me actually getting something done. This definitely makes sense -- but I still found it annoying. I've been working on this stupid-ass project for MONTHS. But she says she hasn't seen much (because there isn't much to see because the whole thing's been a pretty miserable failure) and then she had the cajones to say this: "Impress me. How's that for a challenge?"
Impress you????? A challenge?????
Okay. Breathe. I'm starting to sweat at the thought of that email. It makes sense. It makes sense. She's definitely right to ask me to give her something to write about. But... I still can't get over the tone. The tone is too much.
She's a pusher. She pushes people. She makes shit happen, and that's one of the ways she does it. If you come to her with an interesting, provocative set of data she'll just come up with ten different things you should try to do with it instead of marveling at what you've accomplished. She'll push you.
I just don't feel like being pushed right now.
I couldn't back down, though. So today I went to the lab and cooked up a ptentially "impressive" project with a PhD student. Now I just have to see if I have time to make it work.
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