at least i wasn't the only one...

...who was freaking out!

We had a biology lab report due this week (today, for me). I had all the information I needed. Guidelines printed out. Lab book in front of me. Participated in the experiment, so I knew what happened. The only problem was that I needed to find a primary source to refer to. No problem, because we live in a era of Google and Wikipedia, and we have the freakin' UTA library online!

Not a problem, right?

RIGHT???

Sunday night, Dan walks by me...poor guy didn't know what he was in for...and asks, "Everything goin' okay?"

I burst into tears. I had gone onto the library's database and searched for journals involving diffusion and osmosis. Every single paper I pulled up talked so above my head I didn't even know where to begin interpretting what they were doing, much less the result of it and how to apply it to my lab. Every paper.

Dan suggested I call a friend of ours who has been through the program and had offered to give advice or help. You know, it wasn't like the heavens opened up and the angels started singing kind of advice, it was just a maybe you can narrow your search by doing this...or have you tried looking here...

I called my lab partner who was also having a hard time with the sources. I felt better about that (sad, I know). He's a really smart guy, so I knew if he was having trouble, my trouble is valid...does that make sense?

Well, anyway, I turned the lab report in today. I am 99.9% sure it isn't an A paper, but I will use this paper to do better on the other two coming by the end of the semester.

This is a learning institution, right?

Oh, and by the way, I didn't get it finished by Monday morning like I wanted so that the TA could go over it with me. Oh, no, my lab report was due at 1:00 PM today. I walked into the lab at 12:59 straight from the library.

And, there you have it.