decisions!
Not a very busy day at work, I'm afraid. Steve is in FL, Nick is in FL (ASM conference), Carolyn is unpacking from her move, Crystal has started in a new lab, and Marisa is in Long Island writing her thesis. The most exciting part of the day was distributing the new stockpots. While that is more exciting than it should be (we only got one new one last week when we'd asked for six, so they were all getting pretty full), it didn't take up much of the day. Some slides and scheduling and restocking and mouse work later, I'm out of things to do. I guess I'll go home and work on my bike- it's not like I won't eventually need to stay late to work on something.
I've made a firm goal for myself. It is difficult to picture concretely where I want to be in n years, because there are so many options, but I don't want to be a lab monkey for the rest of my life. I want more options. The way (the only way, really) to get those options is through further education. So my goal is to start school again by next school year, whether it is a PhD program or an MD program. An MS is really a last resort, in terms of actually furthering my progress, so I need to only go for that if there is a good chance that I will be able to continue with a PhD, if I don't get in to any other program, or if the lab has some other huge benefit (is part of NAI, has obscene amounts of funding, is really good PI/project).
Basically, I cannot just think big, I have to act big. Also, I am taking myself off the market for new jobs, since I will not be able to make a two-year (minimum) committment. Also, settling for some other job for whatever reason will not look any better than staying here for another year.
I'm not really excited about living in Albany for another year, but I think that things are really just starting to settle down here and the next year has the possibility to be really good. I also now have the option of looking outside of Albany for living situations, with the downside of being more reliant on a vehicle but the upside of living somewhere nice- we could still have our WMass or downstate life, but I would need to commute.
Ok, this is getting long, and I have talked Carolyn into letting me take care of the one thing that she needed to do here, then I am going to go home and get that bike working, if it's the last thing I do!
the hedge abides.
I've made a firm goal for myself. It is difficult to picture concretely where I want to be in n years, because there are so many options, but I don't want to be a lab monkey for the rest of my life. I want more options. The way (the only way, really) to get those options is through further education. So my goal is to start school again by next school year, whether it is a PhD program or an MD program. An MS is really a last resort, in terms of actually furthering my progress, so I need to only go for that if there is a good chance that I will be able to continue with a PhD, if I don't get in to any other program, or if the lab has some other huge benefit (is part of NAI, has obscene amounts of funding, is really good PI/project).
Basically, I cannot just think big, I have to act big. Also, I am taking myself off the market for new jobs, since I will not be able to make a two-year (minimum) committment. Also, settling for some other job for whatever reason will not look any better than staying here for another year.
I'm not really excited about living in Albany for another year, but I think that things are really just starting to settle down here and the next year has the possibility to be really good. I also now have the option of looking outside of Albany for living situations, with the downside of being more reliant on a vehicle but the upside of living somewhere nice- we could still have our WMass or downstate life, but I would need to commute.
Ok, this is getting long, and I have talked Carolyn into letting me take care of the one thing that she needed to do here, then I am going to go home and get that bike working, if it's the last thing I do!
the hedge abides.