Our hardships and struggles are the stepping stones toward success or where we are now. One thing that has been running in my mind lately is the question, “Why do we need to experience hardships when we can just stay in our comfort zone and enjoy the peace it gives?”, and I have just attained the answer to this question. Without feeling or experiencing struggles, we will never know the real worth of achieving success. Life is about balancing struggles and peace; there will be no peace without struggles and vice versa.
Just like research, you will never gain the outcome you are expecting without exerting an effort to achieve that goal. For a graduating senior high student in an academic track, conducting experimental quantitative research is one of the subjects that causes the students to have sleepless nights, unending stress, and overthinking, which can sometimes lead a student to the verge of giving up. Despite all these, as a person who strives to stay on track for a better future, I kept myself motivated and remained hopeful for everything.
Our research journey was not easy, but the experiences it gave are what mattered the most. Since conducting an experiment is needed in this research, our school accompanied us to visit a University where they have a lab that offers us what we need, (I shared it on my previous blog). Traveling from one place to another is what I like the most in this journey. Although the University we visited did not offer the types of equipment we needed, so we had to look for another laboratory that offered what we needed.
We even considered that we should look for another study that is more doable and uses the equipment that were readily available. Fortunately, a commercial laboratory had the types of equipment we needed for our study, and we finally did the experiment that needed to be performed.
Our group had to travel again so we could perform the experiment already (since the due date of the research paper with collected data is nearing). Although this time, there were no teachers that guide us, we were on our own. This is what excites me most, although it is a scary thought to go to a city you are foreign to, it can be a good way to train us to be on our own, especially in the real outside world. Having to experience new things and a glimpse of the real and outside world is the highlight of this journey.
Aside from the tests conducted in our research study, many things had been tested in our journey as young researchers, such as patience, strength, resilience, and of course, the ability to read and analyze critically. Research is a long, complicated, and expensive process that requires a holistically developed person or student to succeed or survive.
On the day we conducted our experiment, one of my co-members in the group had volunteered to buy the chemical needed to be used in a pharmacy in Colon since it was not available in the laboratory; the two members were left in the laboratory to begin the experiment and to maximize our time so we could finish it in a day. It was a win-win situation for me, I got to do what I have been wanting to, to go to the downtown city with no guardian by my side while acquiring the things we needed for our study.
Since the city is far away and a long ride, we had to travel early by commute to avoid traffic and arrive early. We were not used to and familiar with the place so google maps came in handy. Throughout our trip to the downtown city, my friend and I were dependent on the maps. We arrived at the pharmacy at 9 in the morning, and the chemical and we had to wait for noon so we could get it. We were contemplating whether we should just go back to the laboratory or just wait for it. Although the laboratory is far from the pharmacy and traffic is everywhere, so we decided to just wait.
While waiting, we decided to wander around the area. We ate brunch first, then we visited the Basilica de Sto. Nino church since it was just around the block. There, we stayed inside the church for an hour where all we did was talk about life and the realizations we had while waiting for the time. It was the first time that I sat down on the chair inside the church since we just usually visit for a short time that we won't have time to sit down. It’s amazing how the architectural design inside the church made the ambiance of the church more open and just peaceful. The pressure and stress I got from the upcoming periodical exams and the deadline for our research data were disregarded and just disappeared in an instant when we entered the church.
It took us about an hour till we got out of the church and went straight to the lighting of the candles area. We lit candles there and said our prayers, then we took some pictures shortly. After that, we took our exit and stopped by on the Magellan’s Cross for a short time. We still had time so we decided to have a quick visit to the National Museum of the Philippines - Cebu, where you travel through time and arts. Then, we took a short rest in the Plaza Independencia and made our back to the pharmacy when the time strucks at noon.
We then caught up and made our way to the laboratory where our groupmates were. It took us an hour to reach the laboratory because of the traffic and because we were unfamiliar with the place (it took us two rides). When we reached the laboratory, we immediately helped and assisted our groupmates. I thought that we could finish it all within just a day, but the day was not enough. So, we had to go back to the lab for the next day and this stressed me because that day was our periodical exam. But we had no choice but to go back since the deadline was after the exam. Luckily our exam was by batch - morning and afternoon, so I asked my adviser to put me and my groupmates in the morning batch so that after taking the exam, we’d head back to the city to continue our experiment. It was the most stressful week of my life, maximizing the limited time for studying for the exams and traveling a 4-hour ride to continue the experiment and collect the needed data.
Research can be enjoyable especially if you love and know what you are doing and if you are in the right group. As for me, I did not enjoy it, rather, it stressed me to the point that I’ve had sleepless nights due to excessive overthinking over it. One thing I’ve learned from this experience is that overthinking and worrying do not solve anything, they just add to the tension of your problem. The best thing to do is to calm your thoughts so that they function well; of course, rest is important.
Regardless of the conflicting and stressful schedule, I reminded myself to just enjoy the trip and the whole thing. “This too shall pass” was the line that kept me motivated and stopped me from giving up, aside from that, I knew that once the struggles or the storm passes, there will be peace or light. We returned to the laboratory to continue and made sure to finish the experiment within half a day. I was so relieved and I felt my emotions lighten when we finally finished the experiment and collected the data, so I proposed to my groupmates that we take a short stroll and wander around downtown as a reward, not minding the exam we ought to take the next day.
Weariness was visible on our faces as we wandered around the city in the night, but we did so as a reward to ourselves- besides, this happens rarely so we savored every moment. The best part of the day was finding the cafe “Padayon”, which means ‘to continue’ as the day ends. It’s a wonderful reminder to those people who are on the verge of giving up, because in the end, despite everything that has happened, the best thing we can do is to continue and move forward.
If you got this far reading, I wanted to share that our research study was a success and made it to the top 3 in the physical category. All I can say is that all the stress and hardships we’ve faced have paid off. I am grateful and I feel privileged enough to add this journey to my experiences in life.
Thank you for reading: I hope you enjoyed and learned something from it!