Hello! I would like somebody to proof-read my essay. I think it may need context, but I'm not sure where to insert it. Anyway, here goes.
My teammates gave me rapid glances; each look containing elements of anger. The professor cast a lasting look of superiority over me. The graduate student in charge of the safety of the machinery looked upon me with pity. I couldn't get the last night's re-run of South Park out of my head. My face slowly turned purple. My eyes could not meet the professors'. My lips flapped, but to everyone it was just senseless mumbling. Obviously, I had no applicable knowledge to the oscilloscope and ADC Channels or any of the information I had been learning the past couple of months.
This encounter was the result of the first real-life meeting between me and the professor with whom I had been corresponding through email. Before the encounter, during a simple conversation with Dr. Tanja Horn, mainly about my qualifications and background, I let it slip that I had "extensive knowledge" of the "physics" behind the existence of cosmic muons (the topic I, at the time, wanted to research), when I really had not much beyond a conceptual understanding. It was obvious to her I knew little, considering that the "physics" behind cosmic muons involves calculations far beyond any form of math even graduate students study. The humiliation was Dr. Horn's way of indicating that she had seen through my front.
The hours following my humiliation were more liberating, if anything. I automatically assumed that the research I had been fretting over recently simply wasn't going to happen. If anything, I felt regret toward my father and the others who had sent me toward Dr. Horn. Both my father and the chairman of the nuclear/particle physics department of the National Science Foundation had worked hard to match me to such a prestigious professor. I felt nothing when I received the texts from my teammates wanting out of the experiment. They, too, had given up.
The next day, I received a call from Marco, the graduate student who was in charge of the safety of the operation of the lab equipment. He had gathered the bits and pieces of my incoherent mumbling at the time of the lab, and concluded that I had read multiple textbooks on my own, but had never given enough effort to actually understand and apply what I had learned. He mentioned that throughout his experience with Dr. Horn, my situation had been played out several times with others who were looking to do research that were necessary for a specific course. The main key to success was effort. He also said the effort did not lie in the reading of different phenomenon, theory, and models, but rather in the full understanding of the simplest principles.
After regaining my previous enthusiasm for the research, I spoke to Dr. Horn again, this time asking for a two week study period before even touching any of the lab equipment. Dr. Horn agreed, this time nodding her head. Throughout my research project, I operated an oscilloscope, calibrated different PMTs, designed a light-tight box through carpentry, constructed model PMTs, and learned how to use important DAS such as ROOT and Matlab, even self-studying C++, instead of the Java to which I had become accustomed to.
What I will take with me from my research experience and always remember, is that through effort and passion, success is possible in the world of physics. Without the perseverance with my research, and the curiosity of the way the operations worked, I would never have succeeded in submitting my first official work in the world of physics to the Intel Science and Talent Search.
