Mod 2 = Complete

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^ How I felt after turning in my Mod 2 report to cap off the end of Mod 2

So the last month has been crazy. Between the iGEM jamboree (we got a gold medal!), the NEWMAC Championships, and NCAAs, this weekend was the first time I've actually been on campus during the daylight hours of Saturday and Sunday.

I spent those hours frantically throwing together my Mod 2 research paper. I think I hit a peak in self-loathing at 4pm on Sunday when I was still trying to iron out my introduction and had yet to begin the awful task of formatting the whole thing.

I don't even have the right to complain – our team's data was very nice, making my life a lot easier. But yeah, these past few days have been part of the worst hell week of what has been a hellish semester (work-wise).

The happy takeaway from this module for me was journal club presentations. I was really apprehensive about the whole thing, because talking about other people's research (and if I'm being honest, even my own research) is scary.
This is how I feel every time I get up to present research:


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I don't know if it was my watching a bunch of international teams crush their iGEM presentations (I can't even imagine presenting in a non-native language), but I felt surprisingly calm when I began to present. When it came time for questions and I got to use the extra slides I prepared, I was pretty pumped to pull them up.

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The journal club presentation definitely was the high point for Mod 2, and the research paper the sad, sleep-deprived low point.


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Now to recharge for Mod 3!

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