Maggie's Recap - Week 7

Monday morning, I spent a good half of the day writing up in our manuscript, what had been conducted in R and the steps it took to finish. R ran smoothly and efficiently. I like the program a lot. After writing I joined Mae in dismantling our models back to their original form. In other words, I helped Mae take clay off the frogs. Tuesday, we met with Dr. Bernal to talk about our results. By the time we left I felt torn to shreds and more lost than ever. In addition to our original GLMMs in R, we also had to form correlations between our variables, and run T-tests. That was our task for Wednesday. Tuesday however, our homework was to find grad student positions we may like and write up a mock-email as if desiring to peak a professor’s interest. Even though it was just practice, I still felt overwhelmed. Searching for these positions is one thing but writing to a professor can be extremely nerve-wracking since you are selling yourself.

I just have one thing to say. YOU MUST APPLY YOURSELF AND BELIEVE!

Have confidence. Somebody once commanded people to walk into a room feeling unstoppable.

Thursday, we met back with Dr. Bernal to discuss our results. She showed us the relevance of the t-test and explained how the results differed from those produced in R. I was in awe, I suppose you could say. Afterwards we left campus to go to Martell because she was to give us a lesson in communicating with potential PIs. We reviewed a partner’s and then gave constructive criticism to each other. Dr. Bernal had us explain why or why not we may be considering graduate studies.

​Friday wasn’t too exciting. It wasn’t until Saturday that the group was able to have loads of fun. We went cliff diving at White Rock! The drive is two hours, but it is so worth the wait. That place is fantastic. I jumped off a platform that was 10 feet. But that’s it! Otherwise, I'm terrified of heights. But not because it’s high up. The core reason is because I hate falling because you get this weird, awful sensation in your belly that I can’t tolerate or get past. I didn’t zipline that day, but I have no regrets. Ha-ha! Besides my fun, Garret and his then girlfriend, now fiancé, got engaged!! It was truly a nice way to wrap up the second to last week of the porgram...WOAH!