A Productive Decade
Happy New Year! And Happy New Decade, as 2010 is just kicking off! Well, I'm pretty sure that the last decade (2000-2009) was the most productive one that I'll ever experience, with the most growth and life changes and accomplishments. Hopefully it's not all downhill from here, but I expect more of a plateau with a few spikes along the way from here on out. Here's to having had a great decade!
How far have I come... in JOB:
-I got my very first job (other than baby-sitting and lawn-mowing) in the summer of 2000, right after graduating high school. I worked at World Vision in Monrovia on an Africa Help Desk project. I became proficient with the copy machine and the scanner, as well as getting to surf the web in French. It was a good first experience for a job. :)
-I did a SURF at JPL during the summer of 2001. I analyzed landing sites for the 2003 MER rover mission to Mars (they were down to 6 possibilities at that point). This is what made me want to continue in planetary science!
-I started ushing at Beckman Auditorium at Caltech during the fall of 2001. It was the best job EVER and still one of my favorite ones to this day. They PAID ME to watch cool shows at Beckman that I would have happily paid my own money to go see anyway. And all I had to do was stand the whole time and wear black pants and a 'snazzy' red jacket. :)
-I worked in South Mudd going through hundreds of DVD's of aster data from 2003-2004. Easy job, easy money, and I could work any time I wanted (which was usually in the wee hours of the morning).
-The summer of 2004 found me back at JPL to track atmospheric storms on Saturn in Cassini images. Yes, I counted and followed little dots all day. But the work got my name on a paper eventually, so that was pretty cool.
-2004-2005 I TA'ed GLG 103 lab at ASU. I discovered I don't like teaching, and college freshmen are very annoying.
-in the fall of 2005 I picked up a job at Jamba Juice on campus at ASU. It was pretty awesome to get a free smoothie every day, but having to get up early and freezing my fingers off with the ice cream and frozen fruit didn't quite warrant a mere $6/hr. But it was all for the experience, and I worked there just long enough to memorize all of their smoothie recipes. :)
-2005-2007 I made money through an RA with my advisor, although I really didn't do much work besides working on my thesis (which we all know I didn't work very hard on :-P ).
-2007-present: I've been working at Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego since 2007, and I absolutely love it. I get to target the CTX camera and take pictures of Mars every week, and we're currently working on analyzing landing sites for the 2011 MSL rover mission (funny how that harks back to my SURF of 2001...). Mars is fun to work on, an incredibly interesting place, and staring at images of it all day long is pretty much the best job ever. I've gotten my name on a Science paper and got to go to one conference, and I'm hoping they'll keep me around for another decade or so, too. :)
How far have I come... TRAVELING:
-I did all of my international traveling in the past decade, having never left the country before 2001 (okay, I'd been to Mexico and Canada, but nothing I needed a passport for).
-From 2001-2009 I visited these countries:
France, England, Scotland, Wales, Italy, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, United Arab Emirates (Dubai), and Barbados. Not too shabby for traveling. :)
How far have I come... in PLACES I'VE LIVED:
-in 2000 I was still living in San Dimas, CA
-2000-2004 I lived in Pasadena, CA
-2004-2006 I lived in Tempe, AZ
-2006-2007 I lived in Stanford, CA
-2007-present San Diego, CA
(yeah, I've kind of got a thing for California)
And I'll just sum up the last decade in all other aspects real quick:
In 2000 I was just graduating high school as valedictorian, not sure what on Earth I was going to do with myself besides head off to college. I survived Caltech in 4 years (no small task, mind you), played NCAA volleyball, and even got 2 BS degrees (planetary science & literature). Then I survived grad school at Arizona State and got a master's degree. I got a "real job" with a salary and benefits and everything. I ran my first half marathon. And I got MARRIED! :-D I'd say that's quite a journey for a mere 10 years.
high school -> 2 college degrees -> 1 masters degree -> real job -> married
I don't think I can top that progression rate in the next 10 years. Where else have I got to go?! I'm happy to plateau right here. :)
How far have I come... in JOB:
-I got my very first job (other than baby-sitting and lawn-mowing) in the summer of 2000, right after graduating high school. I worked at World Vision in Monrovia on an Africa Help Desk project. I became proficient with the copy machine and the scanner, as well as getting to surf the web in French. It was a good first experience for a job. :)
-I did a SURF at JPL during the summer of 2001. I analyzed landing sites for the 2003 MER rover mission to Mars (they were down to 6 possibilities at that point). This is what made me want to continue in planetary science!
-I started ushing at Beckman Auditorium at Caltech during the fall of 2001. It was the best job EVER and still one of my favorite ones to this day. They PAID ME to watch cool shows at Beckman that I would have happily paid my own money to go see anyway. And all I had to do was stand the whole time and wear black pants and a 'snazzy' red jacket. :)
-I worked in South Mudd going through hundreds of DVD's of aster data from 2003-2004. Easy job, easy money, and I could work any time I wanted (which was usually in the wee hours of the morning).
-The summer of 2004 found me back at JPL to track atmospheric storms on Saturn in Cassini images. Yes, I counted and followed little dots all day. But the work got my name on a paper eventually, so that was pretty cool.
-2004-2005 I TA'ed GLG 103 lab at ASU. I discovered I don't like teaching, and college freshmen are very annoying.
-in the fall of 2005 I picked up a job at Jamba Juice on campus at ASU. It was pretty awesome to get a free smoothie every day, but having to get up early and freezing my fingers off with the ice cream and frozen fruit didn't quite warrant a mere $6/hr. But it was all for the experience, and I worked there just long enough to memorize all of their smoothie recipes. :)
-2005-2007 I made money through an RA with my advisor, although I really didn't do much work besides working on my thesis (which we all know I didn't work very hard on :-P ).
-2007-present: I've been working at Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego since 2007, and I absolutely love it. I get to target the CTX camera and take pictures of Mars every week, and we're currently working on analyzing landing sites for the 2011 MSL rover mission (funny how that harks back to my SURF of 2001...). Mars is fun to work on, an incredibly interesting place, and staring at images of it all day long is pretty much the best job ever. I've gotten my name on a Science paper and got to go to one conference, and I'm hoping they'll keep me around for another decade or so, too. :)
How far have I come... TRAVELING:
-I did all of my international traveling in the past decade, having never left the country before 2001 (okay, I'd been to Mexico and Canada, but nothing I needed a passport for).
-From 2001-2009 I visited these countries:
France, England, Scotland, Wales, Italy, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, United Arab Emirates (Dubai), and Barbados. Not too shabby for traveling. :)
How far have I come... in PLACES I'VE LIVED:
-in 2000 I was still living in San Dimas, CA
-2000-2004 I lived in Pasadena, CA
-2004-2006 I lived in Tempe, AZ
-2006-2007 I lived in Stanford, CA
-2007-present San Diego, CA
(yeah, I've kind of got a thing for California)
And I'll just sum up the last decade in all other aspects real quick:
In 2000 I was just graduating high school as valedictorian, not sure what on Earth I was going to do with myself besides head off to college. I survived Caltech in 4 years (no small task, mind you), played NCAA volleyball, and even got 2 BS degrees (planetary science & literature). Then I survived grad school at Arizona State and got a master's degree. I got a "real job" with a salary and benefits and everything. I ran my first half marathon. And I got MARRIED! :-D I'd say that's quite a journey for a mere 10 years.
high school -> 2 college degrees -> 1 masters degree -> real job -> married
I don't think I can top that progression rate in the next 10 years. Where else have I got to go?! I'm happy to plateau right here. :)