I have been upgraded from Medical Research Technician to Medical Research Assistant.

It will be 3 months tomorrow, yet, I think my hard work paid off (or my Prof’s generosity!!).

People can be really happy, except me, who can dig up something to mourn here too. My experience with rapid rise in ranks hasn’t been too well. “The faster you rise, the greater you fall”, couldn’t have been more appropriate in my case, with reference to my job as a student assistant at one of the dreadful places in …. a university.

But, then, things were taken out of hand. Here, not so.

Ok, for those wondering if the position names actually mean a demotion, here’s the thing;

Med Res Tech: All hands, no brain.

Med Res Asst: Hands, brain and a mouth (to supervise students)

Let me explain in detail. While I was a technician, I really didn’t need to use my brain a LOT. It was kinda manual labor that people do, you know like fixing pipes, or laying roads or masonry, things like that. There is a technique behind it, a skill, but you don’t need to develop the idea behind your skill.

I do experiments, as instructed, as required. I thought I was giving my brain a well-deserved break from having to read journals, research papers, etc etc. Things went well in the first month. By the 2nd, I was getting bored. Not to forget the fact that I was worried I might rather end up dumber than before.

So, things moved, now I need to read up on papers, stuff, come up with ideas, analyze results and stuff, you know, kinda a step higher, using my brain. And also, I get to take care of the students (summer and otherwise) in the lab. I won’t of course mother them or baby-sit them, but … you get the point…. right?

I willed myself to post this. Don’t wanna let things flow past me again.