Updates are coming, I promise...

So as seen by my last post (and many others before that), this whole grad school transition has had a great deal of ups and downs.

My freakout was no doubt inspired by the news that I'll either be giving group meeting this week or next week (my PI might be out of town this week, so it'll probably be next week). My mentor Fred (who I've been shadowing most of the time), who has been a great mentor so far, sorta shoved me under the bus without warning.

Granted, I do have stuff to present. It's mostly Fred's work that I've done or helped with, along with a side of the work I've done for Hailey (grad student mentor who I've done about 25% of my work with). And I knew I'd have to do one by the end of my rotation. But my rotation isn't over for at least 4 more weeks.

After hearing this, I ended up asking Fred about the whole "you're presenting" bit. Yeah, we've collected a lot of data---so why would he want me to take some credit for it rather than presenting it himself? (And obviously, while I would be thanking him in my credits a great deal, the perception is different than if he was presenting it by himself.) Essentially, he told me that I'm the best person he's ever trained, so he thinks he'll look even better to the boss if I do a rockin' presentation. And I'll look good if I do a rockin' presentation. Later that day, the boss found me and told me that she's heard "lots of good things about [me]."

So I clearly should do a rockin' presentation. Good thing I love talking about research?