Once in a lifetime opportunities

[Candy]

So the title is extravagant, but the content is not that extreme 😂

Today I'm having a sad day and would love to hear what once-in-a-lifetime opportunities you've missed.

 

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Some background to what happened.

So I'm an undergraduate researcher working in a biochemistry/cell bio lab.

My mentor was off last week and this week, so I've been "following" the schedule of things she wanted me to accomplish. Honestly I've never worked so hard in my life, but because I'm dumb I've messed up and been behind schedule.

Anyway, to do experiments, I plate HeLa cells and a knock-out (KO) cell line's cells. Then I can extract protein either by making whole cell extracts, or by fractionation, and compare wild type HeLa to the KO cells' protein.

My mentor had told me to repeat these other experiments, which I had done with siRNA instead of KO cells (the idea is the same, but KO cells are supposed to be more reliable). These experiments were done with whole-cell extracts, so my brain assumed that I would make whole cell extracts for these new experiments.

WRONG. 

I should've read the schedule ahead instead of jumping to conclusions. I was supposed to make fractionations.

So I'm panicking, and thinking of redoing the whole thing by plating new cells. Just when my life depends on them, the HeLa cells start growing super slowly, and keep dying. F*ck dammit. I can't do shit without cells.

So I plated some on Saturday (yes I went into lab on a Saturday), and harvested them today, but from that moment I knew they were too little cells.

Fast forward, it was too little cells. I'm ran a western blot, but don't have a transfer apparatus available (everyone decided to run blots today), and I'm getting hungry but can't leave until these people finish transferring. Also, these blots will be shitty anyway because I won't be able to do primary antibody over night, so f*ck everything.

 

My once-in-a-lifetime opportunity was right then when I had literally fully confluent HeLa and KO cell plates. If I'd done the fractionations with those plates, my life would've been different today. F*ck.

[Busti]

Ah the joys of experimental science. You make one mishap and you are set back days or weeks. I've broken some stuff in the lab too that required a lot of work and time to fix.

 

Everybody makes mistakes. They are especially hard for experimental scientists, but that's why everybody plans for it. You think ("I can do this in a week!"), and you plan three weeks for it.

 

You just learned a lesson and you turned into a better scientist. Props to you.

And like every good scientist, you try not to repeat that same mistake, haha!

 

EDIT: Oh what chances did I miss?

I was crushing hard on this student big band. I tried to join, but I wasn't good enough to make the cut. I learned from that lesson though, and practised. I later joined a different band

Edited September 26, 2017 by Busti

[Candy]

39 minutes ago, Busti said:

You just learned a lesson and you turned into a better scientist. Props to you.

I hope so 😞

I don't make the same mistake twice, but today (after the accumulated disappointment of yesterday) hit me too hard.

I'm a simple woman. I only ask that the freaking HeLa grow 😭

Edited September 26, 2017 by Candy

[T.O.W.A.N.]

I feel your pain, mate. Science ain't easy. Just when you think you got something going on, something goes wrong and you're three steps behind. As for me, my once in the lifetime opportunity was going to Paris on a middle school trip. That's what I get for watching Final Destination (and not having enough money for the trip).

Edited September 27, 2017 by T.O.W.A.N.

[Wolfox]

Look a the bright side, you learned from your mistake and won;t make it again unless you're running on 2 hours of sleep.

Now for a once in a lifetime chance that I missed... oh boy this is a fun one...

 

WARNING: Any male reading this can feel a shot of pain as if seeing someone get kicked in the nards. Proceed with caution.

 

It was while I was in 7th grade. I was really into soccer and I heard that at a certain Friday the club I played at was gonna have a special training organized by the club I was a huge fan of. Now here comes the funny part (remember, kid me was an idiot) on Tuesdays at school we were playing hide and seek, a little moron I was, I thought that hiding in a tree was a good idea. And what tree did I pick? The small tree that would fall over if you look at it wrong... (Again, kid me was not smart). So I was there in the tree, on the smallest little branch where you can barely stand on, waiting for my chance to free myself. Then disaster struck. I fell out of the tree, and I got stuck... The little branch I was standing on went straight through my pants, underpants, and ballsack. Needless to say, I was unable to go to that training, I was completely out of commission for a few weeks and I've never climbed a tree again. And that training never happened again either.

 

Something like that happened a few years later, the class I had been in for a bit but had to leave because reasons (already explained, if you wanna know you can ask) was gonna take Penalty shots against the goalkeeper of that soccer club... I now know I was never meant to keep playing soccer, but those are still 2 once in a lifetime things I missed...

[Alistair]

@Wolfox I cringed really hard reading this. I'm sorry man, my condolences  

 

As for me, a 'standard' mistake, I suppose... When I was 15 I ignored a girl who was into me. I just didn't know her well and didn't really know how to react. She then met someone else, and during the following years I regretted it a lot as I realized she was a really nice person, and turned out to be an attractive young woman too.

 

I've been over it for a looong time now, but I often wonder how my life would have changed if I had become her bf back then.

[Wolfox]

@Alistair I warned you that you could feel a little shot of pain somehow

[Corso]

As for the science thing, capacitors (the real ones, not the sticks you draw in a circuit diagram) really persuaded me to stay away from experimental science.

Lifetime chance missed... there aren't many big episodes, it's more like a sum of several little things, words said/not said, family background. My biggest mistake is probably the fact that I never played any sport, despite my mother proposed me to practice karate (or something like that) when I was a kid. This greatly hampered my social skills later on (and probably my physical growth too). In hindsight, I should have done either that or a soccer school (it's the most popular sport in my country).

Edited September 27, 2017 by Corso

[Alistair]

4 minutes ago, Corso said:

I never played any sport, despite my mother proposed me practice karate

That's funny because I also didn't really play any sport as a kid, and my Mom too wanted to send me to the karate club xD

Oh well, cheers for the missed opportunities of becoming dangerous karatekas I guess =p

[Candy]

9 hours ago, T.O.W.A.N. said:

As for me, my once in the lifetime opportunity was going to Paris on a middle school trip

The struggles of not having money bro 😭 But your school sounds cool since they let middle schoolers go to Paris (unless your school is driving distance from Paris, in which case that's just regular lol)

 

6 hours ago, Wolfox said:

Now for a once in a lifetime chance that I missed... oh boy this is a fun one.

Oh my God. I'm not a man and yet I felt pain in my crotch 😭😭 Sorry man, i shouldn't be complaining about my stupid cells and bad scientific luck. I've heard of stories where a branch penetrated someone and they died. Who'd have thought trees can be dangerous af...

 

6 hours ago, Alistair said:

As for me, a 'standard' mistake, I suppose...

Did she confess though? I guess she lost that one time opportunity too, if that's the case 😛 That's also a missed lifetime opportunity for me too... to the point that I regret it even 8 years later 😂

 

5 hours ago, Corso said:

My biggest mistake is probably the fact that I never played any sport, despite my mother proposed me to practice karate

I feel you. I didn't play club sports bc as a child I only did tennis and swimming. Tennis wasn't a club sport in any of my schools, and I was too self-conscious of my body to join the swimming club haha 😂 I remember doing karate when I was like 5, I wonder why my mother didn't push that... maybe I was beyond horrible at it 😝

[Wolfox]

Yeah, trees are Dangerous beings... For anyone wanting to know btw, I can still have kids. my jewels were unhurt in the accident, just the sack

[Candy]

3 hours ago, Wolfox said:

Yeah, trees are Dangerous beings... For anyone wanting to know btw, I can still have kids. my jewels were unhurt in the accident, just the sack

Felt awkward so didn't ask, but I'm glad- it's called 不幸中の幸い (luck in the face of unhappiness?)

[Wolfox]

that was the best out of the bad situation. would be sad if one of my dreams in life was already neutered (pun intended) that early in life