Dear Marta, Craig, and Pam, 

Reading these stories brings back vivid memories of my own early research days at the University of Sahiwal (2018). 

I remember when mouth pipetting acids was a daily reality for us. Because our lab lacked suction bulbs or micropipettes at the time, we routinely relied on our own breath to draw liquids. Naturally, the inevitable happened: I misjudged the pull, and a mouthful of acid went straight into my mouth. It was a terrifying lesson, but back then, it was almost treated as a routine hazard of navigating resource-constrained labs.

Around that same time, I made another classic beginner's mistake while trying to dry a volumetric flask in the lab oven. Without thinking, I left its plastic stopper on. The stopper completely melted inside the oven, creating quite a mess! That mistake became a turning point for our lab, as we immediately shifted to using proper glass stoppers for heating procedures.

Looking back now, it feels surreal that we ever took such physical risks with mouth pipetting, or had to learn material safety through trial and error. Today, the ubiquity of micropipettes, proper equipment, and strict safety protocols show how much the global chemical community has shifted toward protecting the researcher first.

I would love to see a compilation book of these stories, it is a vital reminder of how far we've come!