From the very moment of your birth, you embark on a lifelong exercise in learning.

While we sometimes consciously engage in these learning processes—we can all recall the late-night cram sessions before a big test—there are times that an experience only reveals itself as formative many years down the road.

When I look back on my more than 25 years in the scientific arena, there are a handful of seminal experiences that shaped me into the researcher I am today. But the most important of these experiences was not apparent to me until many years after I graduated school and established myself in the professional world.