Have you ever stopped to think about where babies come from? Like, really think about it? Sure, a mommy and a daddy love each other very much and then…some events occur. But, I mean, have you ever thought to dig a little deeper than that?
In the beginning of my undergraduate career as a molecular biology major, I found it easy to become obsessively fixated on my studies with anxiety and overwhelm. The endless task list that has existed since my freshman year constantly lives on the right hand side of my MacBook screen, even as I type this, and I’ve never once known it to be empty. As I’m sure all students know, there’s a seemingly endless amount of WebAssign homeworks to do, tests to study for, and papers to read. While this may always be the case, this scarcity mentality of not having enough time or resources to achieve everything I wanted to achieve seemed to shout over the whisper of how awe-striking the complexity of what I was studying was.
Until, one day, I began to tune in to the quieter, broader frequency that had been overshadowed for so long. While this shift in perspective wasn’t something that changed all at once, I don’t ever remember feeling quiet as astounded or outside of myself as I felt during Dr. Planchart’s developmental biology lecture as he showed us a video of an egg being fertilized by sperm and immediately undergoing molecular changes and reductive cleavage. This is the same process that every fertilized egg would undergo that would eventually lead to the creation of a new organism to join us in our time on earth. It all started with two haploid cells that fused together to create you, and me, and everyone else. If you want to take this little existential moment even deeper than that, you can wrap your mind around the fact that, at their core, all these little cells are only made up of only protons, neutrons, and electrons. It was upon these realizations that I was able to view my studies in science as divine, and have a sense of gratitude and agency to apply this new knowledge. This revelation moved me to tears.
This pivot in perspective that comes from remembering where I started always has a way of taking my confined, inward, self-focused spiral and opening me up to the possibilities that exist for me, and all of us, during our time on earth. The opportunity to study life immediately becomes more than my transcript. It makes me feel excited about my future, invigorates my passion for research, and inspires me to view the world complexly. My attitude shifts from one of scarcity to one of abundance and opportunity. As wonderfully put by American playwright Mary Chase: “In this world you can be oh-so-smart or oh-so-pleasant. Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant.”
Stacy Partin, North Carolina
Student Researcher
In the beginning of my undergraduate career as a molecular biology major, I found it easy to become obsessively fixated on my studies with anxiety and overwhelm. The endless task list that has existed since my freshman year constantly lives on the right hand side of my MacBook screen, even as I type this, and I’ve never once known it to be empty. As I’m sure all students know, there’s a seemingly endless amount of WebAssign homeworks to do, tests to study for, and papers to read. While this may always be the case, this scarcity mentality of not having enough time or resources to achieve everything I wanted to achieve seemed to shout over the whisper of how awe-striking the complexity of what I was studying was.
Until, one day, I began to tune in to the quieter, broader frequency that had been overshadowed for so long. While this shift in perspective wasn’t something that changed all at once, I don’t ever remember feeling quiet as astounded or outside of myself as I felt during Dr. Planchart’s developmental biology lecture as he showed us a video of an egg being fertilized by sperm and immediately undergoing molecular changes and reductive cleavage. This is the same process that every fertilized egg would undergo that would eventually lead to the creation of a new organism to join us in our time on earth. It all started with two haploid cells that fused together to create you, and me, and everyone else. If you want to take this little existential moment even deeper than that, you can wrap your mind around the fact that, at their core, all these little cells are only made up of only protons, neutrons, and electrons. It was upon these realizations that I was able to view my studies in science as divine, and have a sense of gratitude and agency to apply this new knowledge. This revelation moved me to tears.
This pivot in perspective that comes from remembering where I started always has a way of taking my confined, inward, self-focused spiral and opening me up to the possibilities that exist for me, and all of us, during our time on earth. The opportunity to study life immediately becomes more than my transcript. It makes me feel excited about my future, invigorates my passion for research, and inspires me to view the world complexly. My attitude shifts from one of scarcity to one of abundance and opportunity. As wonderfully put by American playwright Mary Chase: “In this world you can be oh-so-smart or oh-so-pleasant. Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant.”
Stacy Partin, North Carolina
Student Researcher