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[exsequar]

Today I spent a lovely Sunday afternoon at the outlets with my roomies! I didn't plan on buying much (lol) but came away with this ridiculous haul:

• Shirt from Banana Republic ($11)
  
• Henley from Old Navy ($12)
  
• Deep purple peacoat from Anne Klein ($99 down from $280, oh my god)
  
• Two pairs of jeans from Aeropostale that actually FIT ($42 on a buy-one-

Comments

[jebbypal]

*huggles you* Sorry the research end of things is going poorly. You know what they say which makes us all want to kill THEM. "that's why there's a re in research".

but anyways, I think you should talk over the new papers with Jason to get his take on it. There is absolutely nothing that says, especially this early, that you are wedded to your exact hypothesis. You have to be able to synthesize in new findings all the time which leads to modifications of your scope and thrust of project directions.

Next, doubts. OMG, so normal. Don't freak out. Have you totally completed your quals? Does Michigan offer the option to petition to get your masters while ocntinuing on in the Ph.D track? If so, going ahead and doing this (I know 2 people at Penn that did) will give you some sort of security blanket that if you decide to call it quits before the phd is over, it's not all for naught and you do have an additional degree. NOt that I'm advocating that, but it is the truth.

The next thing to think of is that generally the phd will benefit you in the long run as far as future pay goes. But if you want to stop, don't let that scare you either, because there is still lots of good work available for those with ba/masters and some grad school experience.

As to what else you want to do, I know for a while you were excited on the medical writing front, no? That's going to always be there and you are lucky to have at least one person on your flist that knows a little about it and how to get into it. first and foremost, ignore all the ads that demand "2-3 years experience" - it's a load of bull especially if you go into pharma medical writing at agencies. Agencies, like mine, are desperate for smart people that understand the intricacies of a field, are capable of learning new fields fast, and know how to or can learn how to put a semi-markety spin on things (I say semi- because most of our work is medical education which means its supposed to be semi-fair and balanced).

So, no worries there. We can always talk more about it. And you can explore your options. There's also copy-editing which I'd say is the easiest thing to do freelance even when you're in grad school if you ever want to get some exposure to it. A coworker of mine I think did it for a while where she was copy-editing for foreign journal authors to make their english better etc.

So, enjoy yourself, lean on your prof and labmates (since it seems like you at least have a very supportive environment compared to my hell lab when I was having the exact same doubts and worries) if you can, and don't worry over much about "omg what am i going to do when I grow up" so much until you are starting to prepare for your final year or so. If possible ;)