so many things

The past two weeks have been a whirlwind of activity. I applied to another postdoctoral fellowship and also my very first Real Job.

It all came so fast.

Just a couple of weeks ago, I was in the doldrums of post-holidays, missing my family, feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the work lying ahead of me and the uncertainty of being in a transitory position in my career. In reality, I'm still in the same position, but somehow in the past two weeks I've gone from having No Plan to having actually, a very concrete plan. I might be leaving academia. I might not know how I'll come back, if I do ever want to come back.

Sometime between brainstorming ideas for the grant proposal and applying for the Position, I found myself wandering down the corridors of nostalgia and visiting my old alma mater's page. Turns out they are also hiring (Environmental Sustainability though - not my area). The faculty list was mostly the same with a few new faces, a few old ones missing which I'd known about. A couple of my mentors were still there. I wrote about one of them being an inspiration in my grant proposal application.

I stand on the shoulders of so many giants. Today was me, facing the concept of being another stepping stone for future generations of scientists. Maybe giants. I'm no giant, myself, but maybe one of them will be.

I'm so grateful to be where I am. There are just no words to express how much I owe to my advisors and the people who believed in me and taught me the skills I needed to get here. I just hope I can pay back some of that to my own students.