Blessie Vergara
Post #7
Hope Jahren dedicates Lab Girl to her mother as a way of showing gratefulness for the foundation that she had set in her life. Academically and beyond, her mother was a great influence.
Jahren was an “extension of (her) mother;” her mother was just as competent to become a scientist, placed at the top of her class in high school. She briefly attended the University of Minneapolis until she realized that it was not financially possible nor were there opportunities for advancement in science fields at the time that she was a student there. Jahren was able to live out the dream that her mother was not able to and she was grateful for the sacrifice that her mother took to make that happen.
In some way, Jahren’s mother reminds me of Lydia in Lab Girl. They both had to settle for less-than-ideal jobs because both reached the point in their lives where they had to start a family and be a constant source of income. Seeing their fate inspired Jahren to achieve greater things. In many ways, Jahren was able to better connect with her mother, which is why she dedicated the book to her.
The relationship between Jahren and her mother definitely reminds me of the relationship between myself and my own mother. My mother had a dream to become a civil engineer; she finished college with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering at Guagua National Colleges in the Philippines but was not able to receive credit for it upon immigrating to the United States. By the time she immigrated she already had a family to support, so she took on a job as a pharmacy technician (like Lydia in Lab Girl). Like Jahren, I am (and will continue to be) grateful that I can advance in my academic career without being financially nor opportunistically bound.
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