Marco and Polo Say Goodbye... To Being Co-op Students

Marco and Polo here,
   As we begin our final term of school we have endeavored to write at least one post a week about saying good-bye and 'moving on' from college.  This week marks the beginning of the end of this chapter in our lives and as such needs to be properly mourned and remembered.
   As of last week Marco and Polo had our last days at the jobs we loved.  These looked a little different for each of us as our jobs themselves were.
      Marco: I've spent the past three years learning the ins and outs of a molecular biology lab at a food safety company.  Alongside with working on project involving organizing and identifying around 6,000 strains of bacteria, I got the incredible opportunity to work on R&D for a new product able to detect Salmonella and other pathogens in food commodities. Spending entire days in the lab and always learning something new, I was truly in my element.  Between all the hours spent in lab and the countless learning experiences, I met and worked with some inspiring and incredible people, not to mention hilarious. I can't come up with the words enough to thank every coworker, every friend that taught me something new (especially the Molecular Bio group Baby Gorilla, The Brain and Magellan).  At this point in time, I can't even begin to appreciate all that I have learned from my experience but if I had to pick one thing that I will never forget it's that if you don't love what you do, it's not worth doing.
      Polo:  I have spent the last 2 years working at an optometrist's office (Doc's for those of you who remember him from Marco and Polo's Mexico Adventures).  A unique part of my co-op was that the practice was home to two wonderful behavioral optometrists, this means that they offer vision therapy (VT) and sensory learning at our office.  The education I got working there is priceless, I had the opportunity to work in an office setting, learn about optics, work directly with 'normal' vision patients as well as those with vision problems.  I got to work with children, parents, elderly, autistic, and people suffering from traumatic brain injuries (TBI).  Not to mention the incredible staff, therapists, and doctors in both the main office and the VT office.  I cannot express the thanks I feel to all of my co-workers and friends for helping me on this part of my journey.  To all the patients and their families who have touched my life, thank you for letting me be a small part of your own incredible and promising journeys.
   It is with sadness that we close this chapter in our lives, a chapter that has taught us more about ourselves as people then it did about our careers, as Doc always says 'Never let school get in the way of your education'.

Stay Nerdy,
Marco & Polo