A week ago, I started my summer internship, and I felt intimidated at first. This was not only the usual trepidation that comes with starting a new job or moving to a different state (from Ohio to Texas), but also a fear of not being qualified enough. The latter is what I want to write about – this irrational fear of lacking skill and of, well, screwing up.
Let me explain. I knew I was qualified for my summer position, having both the academic and work experience, yet I still felt doubt. My employer had obviously recognized the abilities reflected in my resume, letters of recommendation and college transcripts, yet I was daunted by the prospect of utilizing them. Interning in a lab suddenly seemed scary. Imagine the many things I could mess up! What if I drop a beaker, overheat a solution, forget to add a buffer, cause an explosion? My four-hour-long safety training gave ample examples of things that could go wrong in just a moment of being uncareful. Furthermore, I wanted to know everything and know it immediately. I wanted to learn all the possible lab methods I thought I would be expected to use this summer and study the background of my lab’s research in as much detail as possible. I read laboratory protocols and research papers published by my lab co-workers, and in a nutshell, I was a little frantic in my preparations. Luckily, a few days ago, I stumbled upon something that managed to calm me, even if only slightly.
If you’re a college student, it is likely you’ve heard of Khan Academy. Khan Academy is an organization that aims to explain a variety of topics in a very easy-to-understand way; in fact, they make videos that will literally draw out explanations for you. The Academy’s website and YouTube channel cover a variety of subjects, from chemistry and physics, to economics, computer science, and world history – just take your pick. I found it to be a particularly useful learning tool for STEM majors, and it was while I was looking up one of Khan's science-related videos that I stumbled upon "You can learn anything." This one isn’t on a specific topic. Instead, it encompasses Khan’s motto and each of their videos’ premise. It is the idea that, with the right explanation, anyone can learn anything. In accordance to this, Khan uses a teaching method that starts off with basic principles on which it then builds upon, to eventually provide the learner with an understanding of even the not-so-simple concepts. This notion that anything is learnable, with a good enough approach and a skilled teacher, struck me as encouraging. It helped replace my fears of being unskilled or ignorant with a little more confidence – confidence in not only the skills already have, but also in my ability to learn the ones I have yet to gain. Because, I thought, what if Khan Academy is right, what if we all can learn anything? That idea might be far-fetched and over-confident, but it’s definitely something I want to believe.
As college students, we all can (and we probably often do) feel overwhelmed by our studies and anxious about our grades as we try to get a grasp on all the material covered in our classes. This is when the notion of having the ability to get an understanding of just about anything with time may be useful to consider. Believing that just about anything can be learned definitely lessens my anxiety. While I still have a kind of anxious itch to learn, to be prepared and know as much as possible as soon as possible, with Khan Academy's idea in mind I am able to relax, take a breath and have a little more confidence in myself.
