BEING A SCIENTIST
Being a scientist is a difficult, painful, arduous and long process. You will be deprived of many of life's pleasures. Especially if you have devoted yourself to this job since your student days, you should avoid being deprived of the pleasures of life in advance.
- Being a scientist is a difficult, painful, arduous and long process. You will be deprived of many of life's pleasures. Especially if you have devoted yourself to this job since your student days, it means that you have accepted in advance that you will be deprived of the pleasures of life. You cannot have enough fun and wholeheartedly sing the freshness of spring and the sadness of autumn. In Emirgan, you cannot enjoy the smile of the tulip and the magnificence of the rose, and you can see the linden trees in Yıldız Park. You cannot breathe their scent deep into your soul. Because you always have in your mind the anxious adventure of the troubled road that awaits you. Even if you want to take the last ferry of the night from Beşiktaş to Üsküdar and watch Istanbul under the moonlight, you will be crushed under the burden you carry, your responsibilities will imprison you, and you will feel the storms in your brain calming down with the tremors of the ship approaching the shore. For the first time, you will look longingly at the sparkles of the moonlight in the sky shining on the sea (you actually went out to watch the moonlight) and turn towards your desk waiting for you, towards the computer keys. You turn.
- You cannot even fall in love, and most of the time you cannot fully enjoy the pleasure of love. Because you are in love with your profession. Those around you are also well aware of this. Your home, your spouse and your children play shadow games to avoid disturbing or hurting you. You notice your spouse's new clothes or new hairstyle days later, with his reminder, and when your child comes running to you to share his success in the lesson, you look up from the pages of the book you are buried in and say "hmm, good for you", often without even listening or understanding what he said, and you either bury yourself between the book pages or lock yourself to the computer keys. People around you often avoid even sharing their successes with you. Because at that moment, you are either working on a new writing endeavor, or preparing for exams like a primary school student, or you are operating on a critical Your patient's condition worries you. Most of your time is spent pursuing academic endeavors, either in the hospital, in the laboratory, or away from your family. Even most of your moments at home are spent mentally in the hospital or laboratory. Those around you do not get upset because they get used to this situation, they wait patiently, longing for the days when they will be proud of the success of their husbands or fathers. But the situation is different for you. Your specialization, associate professorship or professorship becomes an event. Since the family and the entire environment are centered around you, your every success is celebrated for days, and even those farthest away send congratulatory messages. Meanwhile, the wedding anniversaries you skipped, your spouse's or your child's birthdays will be forgotten and will not be touched in your face. Because you are trying to become a scientist. Everyone around you sees you as great, they long for the days when they will be proud of what you have done, and your mistakes will be ignored.
- Of course, these troubles are not in vain. You strive to do something, to be useful to humanity, and if you are a doctor, you strive to do something for your patients. When you look at the historical process, your efforts in the development of humanity and the shaping of the world are obvious. You are the ones who changed times by discovering fire, who survived the era by inventing writing, and who survived the era once again with the Renaissance. Your works are seen in every aspect of life. But history is cruel. What you do lives on, but you are forgotten. They benefit from electricity all the time, but they never remember Edison. The telephone has become an integral part of their lives, but they do not even know the name of Graham Bell. Treatments for many fatal diseases have been found, but no one even bothers to research or learn the names of the doctors who made these discoveries. A scientist cannot experience scientific pleasure in his life. What they do is great for humanity, but they often do not receive material or moral reward. When he retires, a simple retirement ceremony is held at the institution where he works, he is given a plaque and a bouquet of flowers, and he is sent home. The hopes of the environment are slowly fading away. Because humanity values other values. What is the importance of your invention or a new treatment method when the artillery and pop singers are busy on the agenda? You are an ordinary person who is doomed to remain alone in your corner with your memories. While it is initially an idea for your children, they turn to other directions that will benefit them from the realities of life and the bitter truth before their eyes. Because you have not been able to leave them any property that would guarantee their life, other than your scientific studies. Your career often begins with you and ends with you – in the family environment. No one other than your close circle will even know about your death, or it will happen days later. But the situation is different for administrative figures, politicians, artists and others. Their deaths are as sumptuous as their lives. They will be on the news for days. Sometimes hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions, bid farewell to their final journey. Condolence notices are published in newspapers for days. This will be a consolation for those they left behind. Their pain is relieved a little bit. Because They see how many loved ones they have, and they experience once again what a great person their loved one is. And that person is always remembered as an exemplary person for those who came from behind.
- Despite all these facts, scientific pleasure is incomparable to any other pleasure of life. Because investigating the secrets of the universe, trying to discover the world of secrets that the creative power puts before us like a parade in the universe, and moving with enthusiasm on the path to creative power in the face of every miracle discovered, and ultimately knowing Him and reaching Him, is the main purpose of life, the highest of pleasures, the most sublime of loves. It must be…