Life Lessons

Today in my plant propagation class I had to go into the growth chamber. This is a small room (4ftx6ft) where we can propagate our experiments. I do not like this room very much because it is very humid and it makes me feel a bit Closter phobic. The first few times that I went into this room, I always had the door propped open. That was last semester when we were all working with the growth chamber at the same time. At the beginning of this semester though I went into water an experiment and the door had shut! I started freaking out because I could not figure out how to get the door open. There is no handle on the inside (similar to the big economy size freezers) Well I panicked and thought I was locked in there. Sheepishly I knocked on the door so someone would come and get me out! Well to my embarrassment when the door was opened my entire class was looking at me with grins on their faces. I had it explained to me that all you had to do was push on the door to get out.

Needless to say I avoided the growth chamber after that. I would only go in when I was by my self and could prop the door open or someone else had done so. That was a few weeks ago. I needed to water my plants in the chamber at the end of class today. I waited until there were only four people left in the class room in order to minimize possible embarrassment and to also allow for my rescue if needed. I tried to prop the door open but it would not stay open. So I asked a fellow classmate, just to be sure, if the door would open when I pushed on it. She said yes and in I went feeling slightly confident. Well the door shut behind me and I got on with watering my plants. When I was finished I went to open the door again. Here was the moment of truth! I pushed on it……and it did not budge. I pushed a bit harder, panicking a bit. This time I had used my body weight to push. Well the door suddenly came open and there on the other side was a grinning Br. Dewey. (My teacher) He had been leaning on the door to keep it closed! He said that he could not resist after he had heard my question about how to get it back open.

I laughed at this at the time and then later realized what he had done for me. I was no longer afraid to go into the growth chamber with the door closed. He had proven to me that it worked and that I would not be stuck in there suffocating like I imagined. Its funny how life teaches you lessons in many different ways.

The chamber in our class room is similar to the one below.