Research
Water in the Colorado River Basin
RMBL
During the summer of 2020, I was fortunate enough to land a position as a research assistant at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL). The project I was working on was one where we sampled trees to see how much water they consumed as a part of a larger project to understand water usage in the Colorado River Basin. As a research assistant, I was responsible for collecting data and samples that would be analyzed by my higher-ups at a later date.
Vigilance
The main difference between science and engineering is the precision. There's a common joke about how engineers say that pi=e=3, and to an extent that is true. In science, the numbers need to be exact. In engineering, they need to be good enough. Nowhere did I see this more than in research. Everything needed to be precise. The samples needed to be clean, the instruments near perfect. I needed to be vigilant in my work and commit to doing it well no matter how tired I was or how much it sucked to do at times.
Sticks in a Bundle
Researching taught me what it takes to commit to something. It also taught me that if I commit to something, I better be willing to push through the rough parts even if they might suck. Now, whenever I commit to something, I check to make sure that I have the time to commit to the work and produce an outcome that I'm satisfied with. Half-assing in research is a no-go because it deteriorates the quality of the results. I now take my other goals in the same way.
