Beginners' woes

I'm sure a lot of us have something to say about their 'first time'. Don't get me wrong lol. After I read ET sama's entry on her first attempt at injecting a tracer into some poor mouse's brain, I just want to say 'Don't give up! and always think on the bright side!' So here's my two cents' worth of personal story to tell. First of all, it's common knowledge that beginners suck. (If you don't have this common knowledge, you're either too dumb or too confident. And if your boss expects you to be perfect on first try, your boss sucks.)Second, the whole monkey look and monkey do theory doesn't stand. Watching someone else performing an experiment 100 times and trying to cram in the details of what you see is not even as effective as doing the experiment yourself for once and failing it. Failing is great start. You'll be actuely conscious of what could've been done to make things right. The first time I watched my labmate making a polyacrylamide gel, I thought I had the whole protocol clearly in my head and when it was my turn to do it the next day without anybody around guiding me, I was really surprised at all the minute details I missed. There was one step where we lay a thin layer of isopropanol on top of the resolving gel until it solidifies and then we get rid of isopropanol and lay the stacking gel solution above the resolving gel. What I remembered was 'dump isopropanol > dry > lay stacking gel'. I poured out isopropanol and dried the casette with filter paper without rinsing the whole thing with distilled water. The result was, there must still be traces of isopropanol stuck on top of the resolving gel and the stacking gel therefore didn't solify properly. (isopropanol is slightly dehydrating so you can imagine it sucking out water) I had to do the whole thing again and it took me whole afternoon just to make a gel. I'll definitely remember even 10 years from now, the ridiculous amount of time I spent on one gel. It's easy to lose interest and be defeated as a beginner but with practice, your confidence will surely grow. I have shaky hands too and when I load samples into tiny little wells, they easily spill and make a nasty scene. It's even worse when someone's watching me with criticising eyes. It's not a problem anymore after a month's training ^^ There was once I made two mistakes in a row and the lab technician said 'It's hard to trust you sometimes.' It was a very humiliating and discouraging remark which made me miserable all morning. But I know I'll feel even cheaper and more unaccomplished if I let one remark get in the way. The best thing is to be earnest and learn from those who point out your mistakes.

My internet's down and I'm typing this in school library, which's closing in 10min. TATA for now. Cheer up ES! You'll be good! No worries ^^