So Defensive

 

Lately, Josh has been SO defensive. (not Josh pictured below, but this guy does look funny, doesn’t he?)  He has been so defensive, but I’ve got to say, it’s been SO worth it!  On October 29th Josh held his public defense where he stood in front of faculty and peers to present and defend the research project that he has poured his whole self into over the last LONG 4 1/2 years.

Before going through this with Josh, I was pretty naïve to the world of graduate school.  I didn’t know the process.  I didn’t know the culture or climate of scientific research.  I did, however, have an inkling that it would be a lot of work.  I was right about that.  When Josh got into this program I was confident that the MD training would be significantly harder than the PhD.  Although med school had it’s grueling moments, it was nothing like grad school.  This is a chapter of our lives that I can thankfully say is over!  Grad school is a lot like middle school.  I would never want to go back and relive it.  Keep in mind that this is coming from me, the one who didn’t actually earn a doctoral degree.  Josh worked incredibly hard.  The family sacrificed a lot to support him through it, but we made it!

I was able to get a sitter so I could attend his defense.  I listened as he systematically moved through his power point presentation.  There were parts that I absolutely understood, only because the words have been seared onto my brain over the years from hearing him talk about things so much.  I now, with decent proficiency, can tell you about patch clamping neurons, what synaptic plasticity is, the difference between paired recordings—boo, take longer, mini’s-yay easier, long term potentiation, long term depression, good transfection vs. no transfections, cell health, what it means to prepare an animal, BRAG 1,  BRAG 2, Neurogranin, water mazes, hippocampal models, shooting cells, electrophysiology…etc.  Hmmm….maybe I deserve a PhD too!   Ha  What I should clarify is there were a few parts that I understood, but mostly, I just sat there in awe of how smart he is.  While I was at home having babies, he was at school becoming a scientist!  It just blew me away.  It was so fun to get to see him in that light.  When it was all over, I had to ask the girl next to me how he did, (She said good)  because I have no point of reference for what a well-done defense looks like, but it was probably unnecessary, because I knew in my gut that he was pretty awesome. 

Josh is now officially Dr. Brown.  Bring on the rest of med school!  Let’s get ‘er done!