You can’t give up, you don’t know why you care so much but you must properly explain your research if it’s going to take all night. Words and lectures might not do it, but a well crafted diagram just might do the trick.
You take an empty plate and start spooning over a healthy dollop of mashed potatoes and stuffing. You start creating lines across the plate with the food before presenting it to your family.
“Okay, so imagine that these are normal genes,” you craft a long straight line of creamy white mashed potatoes. Then you start mixing in some stuffing, then grab some cranberries. Next you spoon out some of the potatoes and move them somewhere else while marking the food with various patterns of gravy.
“Now these are the insertions of the GCr82’s and these are the MHu845 mutations, followed by some TER42 deletions,” you make a dramatic face drawing in your audience. According to these metrics, that often leads to an uptick in MRU62’s causing all sorts of trouble over here, you began pointing out to all your food with your butter knife.
“Do you see now, we have to figure out the most efficient combination of pickles and turkey to maybe prevent this outcome, do ya get it now?”
“Yeah, I think?” your confused mom replied. “No, I don’t know what any of those terms are.”
“When’s the next time you’re gonna take the MCAT,” your dad asked. “I have a feeling you’re gonna be a great doctor. They also make a ton of money!”
What do you do?
The mashed potatoes and stuffing weren’t making an adequate diagram, look for a white board