So one thing I've learned about the major differences between graduate and undergraduate training is how they train you to think. In my undergraduate career, we were expected to study the information presented and demonstrate that understanding by doing homework sets and answering questions on exams...all of which the answers were already known by the professor. In graduate school, particularly for the PhD, you are still presented with information, but with that information you are expected to use it in a way to solve problems that currently do not have a solution known by anyone! This means that in order to solve these types of problems, you also have to approach them in ways that haven't been tried before in order to yield new information.
I must say that this is one of the areas that has been hard for me to transition into. Right now, I'm being required to write two proposals, detailing new experiments that are designed to solve current problems in the area of biomaterials. Its so frustrating because every time I think that I have come up with a new idea, I do some more searching of the literature and it has already been done! It can be very discouraging, but I'm reminded that I have a personal connection with the Creator of this world who also was intimately involved in the design of the human body. With Him on my side, I know I can trust that He will lead me into paths of thinking that will produce groundbreaking ideas in my areas of research. I just have to TRUST, be PATIENT, and continue doing my job of DILIGENTLY STUDYING : )
These texts have especially been of encouragement to me over the the past couple of weeks:
Jeremiah 33:3
Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.
Ephesians 3:20
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us
Lamentations 3: 24-26
24 I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him."
25 The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him;
26 it is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the LORD
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