Down in the valley of PIs

As I said earlier, it is three years since I wrote here. It seems I wrote a lot about nothing and then nothing about everything. A leaf meandering its way, riding on the gentle but bumpy stream, through the small crevices in the mountain suddenly gets caught in the downward rush of a flash flood. There is no consciousness of the events that happen during the flood. The flood is gone, the valley has stopped spinning around, and I am no longer a young ex-post-doc, but a PI! I am not longer a rudderless bachelor, but a mother! On both accounts a ‘responsible’ ‘mature’ individual. Must be.

Yesterday were the final presentations of the coursework students, the coursework I have been coordinating for 3 years now. The students don’t realize it, but I was more nervous than them. A part of growing up; you start seeing political undercurrents that you were oblivious to before. As always there are people who are pro and anti to any change in the landscape. It was important, to me, that the students did not become collateral damage in the clash of the factions.

All went well. I was amazed at the strides they had made from the fresh and uninitiated to people who could put together a project and stand their ground when challenged. I guess in our rarified and protected environment it is often easy to forget that the world is run by 20 somethings who live outside the ‘bubble’. More on the bubble later.

But all is well in the bubble today. 11 students. 1 daughter. 1 lab. 4 benches. 1 office. 3 collaborative publications. 1 giant review. 3 papers cooking. Not enough! Not enough! Yeah, yeah, I know. But I refuse to be downbeat right now. All is well in the bubble right now.

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PEREGRINATIONS

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