I’d like to preface this by saying I started Week 5 believing the next two weeks would be smooth sailing. My data was (supposedly) coming in, my experiments were almost complete, and the poster deadline was still far enough away that I could comfortably push it to the bottom of my to-do list. Then reality hit, and my little fairytale of content started to crumble.
While we completed all the FTIR testing on Monday, I didn’t receive my results until the end of the week due to machinery errors and other issues. This left me only the weekend to interpret my graphs and write the discussion and conclusion sections. This might have been manageable if I hadn’t realized I’d never even seen an FTIR graph before, let alone known how to interpret one. So, I set off to YouTube to absorb as much as possible in the short time I had.
Combine this with the fact that I had to pack up the room I’d been living in for the last six weeks, and you can imagine the vibes: pure chaos and a sense of existential dread. Now, I should admit much of this stress came from vastly underestimating how much time I’d need to finish my poster. Instead of “locking in” and focusing on it on Saturday, I went down White Ave for some shopping and later had a campfire in the river valley. This left only Sunday to frantically draft my poster and then spend all of Monday impatiently waiting for feedback from my supervisor and principal investigator—again, a direct result of my weekend procrastination.
Despite all the setbacks, the moment I clicked “submit” on my poster was truly unmatched. It was about 8 p.m. when I finally got the confirmation email from my PI that everything was good to submit, about four hours after the extended deadline I had already requested had passed. The sigh of relief I felt when I opened the Google form to find it still open, and that I could (finally) submit my poster, was possibly life-changing.
Dorm life deserves its own chapter in this saga. As an out-of-Edmonton student, I’ve spent the past six weeks unraveling the mysteries of residence living: cooking for myself (loosely defined as “assembling edible things”), managing laundry schedules, and learning that personal space is more of a concept than a reality. And yet, I loved it. Planning social events around the dorm, heading out to dinner after long days, or baking banana bread a bit too close to curfew—it was the little things that made this experience so memorable. While balancing research with just keeping myself alive and healthy sometimes felt like juggling flaming swords, somewhere along the way I actually got better at it.
Now, at the end of these six weeks, I can see how far I’ve come, not just in my project, but in my ability to adapt, solve problems, and navigate entirely new situations (like figuring out Edmonton transit—although I may have accidentally taken a train in the wrong direction and been stranded for two hours; learning experience!). While there were definitely stressful moments, this has been one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve ever had. I’m fairly certain my friends and family will have to stage an intervention to get me to stop talking about it.
Would I do it again? Absolutely. Machine breakdowns, last-minute scrambles, and all—because every obstacle was paired with something equally rewarding, and that’s what made this summer unforgettable.
Siobhan M. - A student from Grande Prairie, she is a dedicated rugby player and the principal cellist in her school orchestra. When she’s not on the field or performing, she enjoys creative projects, baking, and getting lost in the woods while hiking.