Worried about my future job....

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I just finished my freshman year of college and everyone is asking me what I want to do with my life. I'm telling people I want to do biomedical research, which is great because I'm interested in biology, my major is biochemistry, and I've already started doing undergraduate research. I'd love to be able to have a career in research, but I have two problems that I'm afraid might hold me back:

1. Lab work. Sometimes when I'm helping out my advisor in the lab or working on an experiment for a science class, I get disoriented and have to stop what I'm doing and rethink all the steps in my mind to make sure I have everything in the right order and am not mixing stuff up. I have trouble knowing where all the supplies are spatially laid out in the room. I also need directions that are a little more specific than other people do, because sometimes things that seem obvious to an advisor or TA (or even another student) confuse me. So far, I've been able to compensate for this stuff, and any mistakes I make are attributed to me just being new. But I'm afraid this could be an issue in the future.

2. Giving presentations. I get really nervous speaking in front of people, and sometimes stumble over my words or say things I don't intend to. Plus I tend to fidget or play with my hair or make hand motions I'm not aware of doing. Basically I just get tunnel vision and don't even remember the presentation later. I'm afraid that, if I have a career in research, I'll have to present at some kind of convention or symposium and I'll mess up because I'm awful at public speaking.

Even though these two things are hard for me, should I just go for it and hope for the best? Or is a possible career change in order here?

EDIT: Also, I should note that I'm not diagnosed with Aspergers or anything, but I have some traits/issues that imply I might have it

You should go ahead with your research goals.
Many people have the same issues that you do.
Familiarity, knowledge, experience gained over time in the lab and on presentations help a lot.

Those are the least of your problems.

The real bad stuff comes with stacks of paperwork, social politics, funding, management of funding, and the million little pointless dances and completely arbitrary nonsense that stand between you and the fun stuff.


I wanted to be a palaeontologist.
I just stopped completely when I found out that time spent actually digging up dinosaurs would be dwarfed by the amount of time spent preparing, planning, getting permission, getting funding, trying to convince people that helping me out would be worth their time... and then all the paperwork, the writing, the arguing with the journals, the arguing with people IN journals, the BS surrounding credit and citation order.

If I'd wanted to be a bloody politician, I'd have studied politics.
I wanted to find fossils. I just realised a bit too late that it came with an insurmountable mountain of BS.


I miss the days when I could just space out in a lab.

I personally would continue, one year of issues with lab work and giving presentations isn't enough to definitely say you are not cut out for it, in my opinion.

If you want to go into a research field, you have almost or over a decade of schooling to take, and in that time you could learn to compensate for any AS troubles.

Or at least, after a few more years you will have more clarity and can make a decision then.

Hello all. After almost two decades of college, teaching, professorships, working and fighting the "system" to find what I thought would be a place I could be happy my job has ended. I had a severe illness that affected my mind and made my autistic symptoms more......noticeable. It has placed me in a position where I am going to have to quit because I have lost the ability to work within the "administrative bureaucracy". Its for the better. Looks like I am just going to be a plain on sculptor. Its difficult of course but it is what it is and I have never been the type to give up. No one should. Just keep looking till you find your spot. Its about the journey, not the destination no matter how corny that might sound. you might have fun looking at some of my stuff. I am a high functioning autistic with Savant Syndrome. Somehow I made it through college and became an art professor before I found out. Have a look if you like, its at www.darrelltousley.com good luck all.