Navigating your Niche as a Newbie

            College. No other place on earth will you find the coexistence (and juxtaposition) of stress and freedom, shyness and courage, egocentrism and altruism. For many, students are experiencing the outside world for the first time. Leaving the safety of our homes, we no longer have a mother’s calming touch and excessive care. We wash our colors with our whites resulting in tie-dye sheets. We disregard the long-lectured food pyramid and get by with ramen noodles, easy mac, and whatever campus club promotion happens to be giving out free pizza that week. And, for the first time ever, we are expected to know the answer to the question: “What are you doing with your life?

            For those of us who can stomach the sight of blood, find delight in the troubles of scientific process, and actually enjoy Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species, we answer this question with “research.” Luckily, The Ohio State University is the perfect place for us. Time and again, OSU is ranked amongst the top research universities in America. The sheer number of available research fields alone gives students the opportunity that can be, well, overwhelming at times. I myself had trouble just deciding where to start. I had older students directing me towards labs specializing in everything from biomedical engineering to the impact of patient yoga practices on hospital infection rates. I started at OSU with the goal of going into the medical field. Yet again, however, I was left to answer the question, “What are you doing with your life?”

            I emphasize this question again because of how difficult I know it can be for us undergraduates to answer. I watched my fellow classmates join their labs left and right, gleaming with confidence. I was so overwhelmed, stressing that a wrong choice would negatively impact my future. I even considered taking a semester off of science entirely just to reevaluate what I had always known I wanted. It was during this time, albeit far from the first, that cancer infected my life through loved ones. On my way to class the morning after hearing that news, I looked up at the James Comprehensive Cancer Center. I can’t label any “Ah-ha” moment, but I just knew. I knew that everything in my life—my family history of cancer, my choice to come to the cancer research powerhouse at Ohio State, even my recent donation to a friend’s Pelotonia fund—was building up to this moment. I was going to research cancer, and I was going to make a difference in the world doing it.

            I never looked back from that decision I made that day. I went home and opened internet tabs to every oncology research lab at OSU. It was only a few days and interviews later that I found the Roychowdhury Lab. Dr. Sameek Roychowdhury and his team shared in my discovered passion of cancer research. The lab specializes in giving patients hope when they have run out of options. From my first day, I was accepted into what I can describe only in the word—family. I share in the trials of organic chemistry with my fellow students. Just as well, however, I chat with the clinic team about the Cleveland Indians woes and OSU’s College Football Playoff aspirations. Most importantly, I’ve gotten to know my post-doc supervisor, Dr. Melanie Krook. With her guidance, I am becoming both a better research investigator and a better person. It was Dr. Krook’s idea to start this blog. I took on the job knowing it would be a great way to express how thankful I am for finding my place in research.

            However, I will say it is not all easy. Our days at work are longer than what many other undergrads undertake. Research itself can be frustrating—90% failure, 5% success, and 5% luck (as Melanie says). I can be so excited to test the cancer progression ability of cells, yet I can hardly get the cells to overexpress my gene of interest. But I wouldn’t trade my experience for the world, because every day I remember what I’m going to do with my life, and every day I know it is the right thing for me. For that, I have undergraduate research and the Roychowdhury Lab to thank.