Persist

Life as a professional scientist is inevitably fraught with setbacks and failures. It is important to recognize failure as central to science since the advancement of scientific fields relies as much on the rejection and refutation of hypotheses and theories as it does on corroboration and breakthrough discoveries. In many cases, “failures” in the laboratory provide valuable knowledge that guides the community away from blind alleys and toward more promising avenues of inquiry.

Fortunately, I learned early on that setbacks are inevitable, and that persistence and resilience are essential qualities in a scientist. At Gettysburg College, I had big ideas about majoring in chemistry, but I struggled to grasp some of the basic concepts of chemistry. In fact, after a lackluster early performance, my chemistry advisor told me straight out that I should find a different major. In the face of my own struggles with the material and my advisor’s discouragement, it would have been easy to walk away and find another major. In fact, I almost did just that. Yet somehow, I found that these hurdles also sparked their own form of encouragement in me, as I discovered that I wanted to prove to myself and others that I could reach my goal.

The epiphany inspired me to study nights and weekends, asked my roommate for help, and seek out professors in their offices. I managed to hang in there with passing grades, and then, when I made it to Physical Chemistry, something remarkable happened: suddenly things started to click and I felt that I was really becoming a chemist!

I don’t know why PChem was the one subject that gave me that “aha” moment, especially since math is not my strong suit. Perhaps my brain needed time to mature. Or maybe I needed time to mature. Whatever the reason, all the hard work, the support of many, and my belief in myself were starting to pay off. I learned from this early experience that in science, there is an article of faith—faith in the process itself, in consistent effort, and in the worthiness of the goal that lies at the core of our ability to persist through setbacks.