New kid on the block

When he first came to me asking whether there will be anything he could work on and help in my research, I had mixed feelings as always. The first few weeks will be teaching and training, which means I will have to spend considerable amount of time, my time that I could spend on working things by myself, on him. But when he can start to work by himself, and IF I trust him to work on experiments, he could come in handy. I have had new students before, some good and some well… not-so-good, who just came in for the money and not to learn something. But I felt something different in this kid. So I thought well, maybe I will give him some work for couple of hours and asked him how much time he has on his hands. He replied ‘I can work full time, all week’ and my mind went “Oh Crap!” I looked at him and couldn’t say NO. Full time was still too much because I already had another student who was working full time. I hope my instincts were right when I agreed to have him as a part-time student worker.

Who am I kidding- I always agreed to take these students not because they will help me but mainly because I knew I am helping them to learn something or earn something.

It has been six months now. I have not regretted my decision.