Not Going to Florida.
dark_towhead and I visited South Florida, specifically Port St. Lucie, last week. My current PI is relocating to a posh new scientific institute there, and has invited us to relocate.
Yeah, it's a posh new institute, a new branch of a CA group. The lab group looks great. The facilities are top notch, and the funding is strong for the next few years. Scientifically, it is very sexy.
It's also the only thing of note for miles around. Retirement communities? Yep. Golf courses? Check. But there just aren't that many people around. It's like moving to an impeccably groomed golf course with strip malls and a really low population density... a green ghost town waiting for a retiree zombocalypse crossover with Desperate Housewives. If D wanted to be the sexiest barrista in town, he'd have very little competition. Not much on the possibility of professional work elsewhere for me once my postdoc term was done, either.
The excitement level of the town known for 'culture' was lukewarm after getting used to San Antonio. (Michigan readers will understand the analogy that Jupiter, the 'happening' place, really looked like Sterling Heights, if Sterling Heights had beachfront property.)
So I turned down the sure thing, convinced that moving there would not be a move up for D and I. In fact, I'm rather convinced it'd be a move down, personally and professionally. (During the visit, D frequently said 'I just want to go home'. He'd look at me the same way I imagine mental patients do when they plead not to be put in the white van. I'd say that was a sign, eh?)
I'm still uncertain about the future in general. I'm convinced more and more that by getting my PhD I need to craft my own job and then sell it to the US government... or something similar. I don't think there are off the shelf jobs for my skillset. Scary but true. This may be the dumbest thing I've done in my life.
On the upside, we're pretty happy here in San Antonio. It feels like home now. If I could just import my far flung friends, life would be just about perfect. Alas, I don't live in the Matrix. :)
Yeah, it's a posh new institute, a new branch of a CA group. The lab group looks great. The facilities are top notch, and the funding is strong for the next few years. Scientifically, it is very sexy.
It's also the only thing of note for miles around. Retirement communities? Yep. Golf courses? Check. But there just aren't that many people around. It's like moving to an impeccably groomed golf course with strip malls and a really low population density... a green ghost town waiting for a retiree zombocalypse crossover with Desperate Housewives. If D wanted to be the sexiest barrista in town, he'd have very little competition. Not much on the possibility of professional work elsewhere for me once my postdoc term was done, either.
The excitement level of the town known for 'culture' was lukewarm after getting used to San Antonio. (Michigan readers will understand the analogy that Jupiter, the 'happening' place, really looked like Sterling Heights, if Sterling Heights had beachfront property.)
So I turned down the sure thing, convinced that moving there would not be a move up for D and I. In fact, I'm rather convinced it'd be a move down, personally and professionally. (During the visit, D frequently said 'I just want to go home'. He'd look at me the same way I imagine mental patients do when they plead not to be put in the white van. I'd say that was a sign, eh?)
I'm still uncertain about the future in general. I'm convinced more and more that by getting my PhD I need to craft my own job and then sell it to the US government... or something similar. I don't think there are off the shelf jobs for my skillset. Scary but true. This may be the dumbest thing I've done in my life.
On the upside, we're pretty happy here in San Antonio. It feels like home now. If I could just import my far flung friends, life would be just about perfect. Alas, I don't live in the Matrix. :)