Growing Pains: What We Learn From Discomfort

By: Rosamia Perez

I’ve spent the majority of this summer being uncomfortable. Between the intense Florida heat and humidity, working in a lab space completely unknown to me, driving across the state for the longest drive I’ve ever done, working with people I met only weeks ago, and handling animals for the first time that could hurt you if they felt threatened enough has kept me in a state of discomfort this entire internship. But despite the words having a negative connotation, I think it’s what made this summer all the more memorable and helped me grow. 

This experience has taught me more than I could ever imagine. I learned a lot of new techniques in the lab and the field. I learned how to properly handle sharks and venomous catfish. I do still hesitate when reaching out as I do know what these animals are capable of, and I’m always wary of time and try to handle them as quickly and with as much respect as possible. Even so, I have more confidence in my field skills than when I started at the end of this past May. I’ve picked up so many new lab techniques, from homogenizing samples, to staining, to immunohistochemistry. My previous experiences in research have always just been data analysis and manipulation, so going through the process of handling samples and data collection was different. But I have more lab experience under my belt now which I am grateful for.

I have met and reunited with some of the most amazing people on this Earth. I have met people who are quiet but diligent, rays of sunshine who have the brightest smiles I have ever seen, people who are endlessly dedicated to science and have made a strong career for themselves. Working in large groups in science was very new, and although there were some struggles with communication, we managed to work through all of it.
I think the most humbling part of this internship is when our original experiment failed. I remember laying on my bed, absolutely downtrodden. I thought to myself “That was it. Our last chance and I failed. I’m going to walk away from this internship with no research project. How do I tell my friends and family?” After a while of more depressing thoughts like this, I eventually sat up and straightened myself out. Because this happens all of the time. Science almost never works out the exact way you want it to, and feeling sad wasn’t going to help me do anything. So I took a breath, and began to think. I took everything into consideration, all of the samples collected, all of the trials and tribulations of the experiment and why it failed. Then it hit me. Why not take the very reason that this experiment didn’t work, and make it into my new research project? Suddenly, I was feeling much more hopeful about the outcome of the internship. And now, a month past this “failure”, I have a blooming research project, a lot more experience under my belt because I changed course, and I am feeling more excited about science than ever before. 

Never be afraid to step into something that brings discomfort. Never be afraid to admit you don’t know something. Never be afraid to be curious and ask “what if?” Never be afraid to learn more. Because the next time you find yourself in a situation where you’ll feel those “growing pains”, you’ll likely come out of it feeling more resilient, more knowledgeable, and more prepared to take life by the horns and make your own path.



Rosamia interned for MISS in Summer 2025.