The life of a first-year graduate student may seem relaxed to outsiders. No pressure to publish, time to learn new techniques, a chance to adapt to lab life. Not much is expected of you because you've only just started, and your project is not yet final, so if things don't work it's nothing to get stressed about. You're young and enthusiastic, and enjoy immersing yourself in all your new life has to offer.

But things aren't always so simple. You want to prove to others and yourself that you're worth your PhD place, and are not taking things easy. Before the hard work you envisage in later years, you join many societies, which demand time. You are trying to get a foothold on the literature and you wish people would stop publishing so quickly. You visit every seminar and lecture, but worry that any questions you ask are irrelevant, obvious or just plain stupid.

More seasoned graduate students seem more knowledgeable and don't appear to be intimidated by the presence of eminent scientists. They know the mini-prep protocol by heart and can walk late into lectures without batting an eyelid. Nothing seems to faze them.

I know that next year I shall be the same, telling the new students how to make external phone calls and where to find the salmon-sperm DNA. I'll have a laid-back nonchalance, confident like that kid on the back seat of the bus. But at the moment they can have their bravado. My thesis deadline is three years away.