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And back again
Apr. 5th, 2009 07:37 pmI am hoooooooooooooome! <3 <3 <3
I'm back in my proper time zone, in one piece, and with all my belongings mostly intact. I have given Mum the paper made from elephant poop I got her at a free trade store in Birmingham, and she has heartily approved. I am full up on thoughts and realizations that I now have a ton of work to do to catch up, but mostly a lot of thoughts.
In the end, I'm really glad my advisor convinced me to go. It got me the hell out of dodge for a while, and while I guiltily admit I didn't do as much work as I should have, at least to a certain extent, I got a BREAK, and I think that's helped me recharge. I think it's helped me get some enthusiasm back about what I'm doing. I've been despairing a lot over the lack of funding I've been able to secure, despite my multiple attempts, and have been becoming very convinced that nobody really cares about what I do. Going to this made me realize that at least SOME people do. I had a lot of people express appreciation that I'm working on my grass, because somebody really needs to.
While I was there, I went to the special symposium on Darwin, which featured some awesome speakers about Darwin, his work, and evolution. The last speaker was Ed Wilson, who seems to be comparable to Darwin, at least here in the southeast, to the degree by which he's revered. His speech was really comforting to me. One of his big statements was that, yes, everything is going molecular now. Everyone pours money into the molecular biologists who learn everything about Arabidopsis or some other model organism. But how will they apply to all other organisms? So we still need people that are enthusiastic and willing to learn all they can about a genus/species that they love, so that that leap can be made. That made me go YES. MY EXISTENCE HAS BEEN VALIDATED. <3 <3 <3
I networked a little too, which was good. I got to go about and see Birmingham, which is more urban than around here, so I got to see all sorts of old neat buildings. I saw the Birmingham Botanical Gardens, which were really gorgeous, but they would have been exponentially moreso if we had gone maybe a few weeks later, when everything would be in full bloom.
In any case, though, it was stimulating, gratifying, and comforting, and I've come back feeling better about things. Maybe, just maybe I can do this. <3
I'm back in my proper time zone, in one piece, and with all my belongings mostly intact. I have given Mum the paper made from elephant poop I got her at a free trade store in Birmingham, and she has heartily approved. I am full up on thoughts and realizations that I now have a ton of work to do to catch up, but mostly a lot of thoughts.
In the end, I'm really glad my advisor convinced me to go. It got me the hell out of dodge for a while, and while I guiltily admit I didn't do as much work as I should have, at least to a certain extent, I got a BREAK, and I think that's helped me recharge. I think it's helped me get some enthusiasm back about what I'm doing. I've been despairing a lot over the lack of funding I've been able to secure, despite my multiple attempts, and have been becoming very convinced that nobody really cares about what I do. Going to this made me realize that at least SOME people do. I had a lot of people express appreciation that I'm working on my grass, because somebody really needs to.
While I was there, I went to the special symposium on Darwin, which featured some awesome speakers about Darwin, his work, and evolution. The last speaker was Ed Wilson, who seems to be comparable to Darwin, at least here in the southeast, to the degree by which he's revered. His speech was really comforting to me. One of his big statements was that, yes, everything is going molecular now. Everyone pours money into the molecular biologists who learn everything about Arabidopsis or some other model organism. But how will they apply to all other organisms? So we still need people that are enthusiastic and willing to learn all they can about a genus/species that they love, so that that leap can be made. That made me go YES. MY EXISTENCE HAS BEEN VALIDATED. <3 <3 <3
I networked a little too, which was good. I got to go about and see Birmingham, which is more urban than around here, so I got to see all sorts of old neat buildings. I saw the Birmingham Botanical Gardens, which were really gorgeous, but they would have been exponentially moreso if we had gone maybe a few weeks later, when everything would be in full bloom.
In any case, though, it was stimulating, gratifying, and comforting, and I've come back feeling better about things. Maybe, just maybe I can do this. <3