4 months eleven days and a whole Heap of Trouble . . . But good trouble

Hi Fam,


Just checkin' in to say hi and give you an update. I figured I can only lurk so long, but I'm learning so much exploring the links on other blogs and I really appreciate to great blogs I'm reading. Anyhoo, I'm in the thick of it folks. After the new year (By the way HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!) I sat down and determined the date that I needed to have my dissertation completed and submitted to the library in order to attend the Hooding ceremony (Where I receive my degree and a "hood" that signifies that I hold a Doctorate--Dr. Chi-chi(:). That date is, drumroll please. . . May 2nd. May 2nd! Eeeeeeekkkkkkk! That means I need to get my reagents together, complete experiments, submit a paper to be published in a scientific journal, write my dissertation and defend it by MAY 2nd! Technically this is the date that I have to submit a draft of my thesis and then the final version is a week later, but it might as well be this day. I don't know guys if I'm gonna make it. Worst case scenario is that miss the deadline and defend in the summer and then graduate in the summer. But the spring graduation is the "big" one with speakers and hooding ceremonies and all that other great stuff. So regardless of whether I make it to May 2nd with all that stuff done, I'm gonna treat it like a real deadline. I'm getting my reagents together, hopefully they'll be ready by the end of the month. Then I have February to introduce the project to my committee. All the while I'll be performing experiments. If I can get all my experiments done by April, then I'll have one month to write everything up. I'm praying that if I can show my committee that I've submitted a paper to a scientific journal in March, they'll give me permission to write in April.

That means that I've been working like there's no tomorrow. I was energized in October but I've never worked so hard for anything like I am now. But its great. I'm so excited by my work, I really enjoy seeing progress--progress and the need to see progress is what drives me right now.

But I haven't turned into a total science nerd. My one year-aversary was on December 5th of last year. My hair is starting to loc in earnest and I really like the length. Not to mention the convienience. Dealing with a 'fro during all this madness would be too much drama right now. James and I also celebrated our one year anniversary of dating each other last sunday (Jan. 14th, the pic below is at a New Year's party). We learn more about each other each day and I like what I see. We're going strong and I'm really happy that he's in my life. (:



I just saw "Stomp the Yard" today. That movie was soooooo good. If you like step shows, this one is on point and was very tasteful IMHO.

Let see, what else. . . Oh yeah, I'm still trying to figure out what I'm going to do with my life (: I'm starting to narrow down labs for a postdoc and unfortunately, they are not in Chicago. I've fallen madly in love with this city. Here, I'm 2 hours away from my brothers and parents. My sister and her family are in the burbs, my best friend of 15 years is down the street, along with several other friends, my boyfriend is around the corner and I'm in a city but I feel like I'm in a community. My support network is pretty strong, but to stay here would mean career suicide. To be in the running for Senior Scientist at a company or Assistant Professor and a Tier 1 university, I have to go to the a lab of a well recognized scientist in his/her field. Since my interests include stem cells, virology (HIV and others) and immunology, those people are everywhere but here (ie. Boston, Baltimore/DC area, California, Wisconsin, etc. . .). For a long time I was in denial and considered working for a start up in Chicago but I realized that my heart is in discovery. I want to discover not perfect something that someone else discovered. That means that I'm taking the route to being an expert in my field of choice (though I'm still choosing) which means I'm going to do a Post-Doc (post-doctoral fellowship). I have to be broke a little longer, but if I choose industry, it won't be as long (1-2.5 years) as choosing academia (2.5-3 years). I still have the entrepreneurial spirit, I just don't know how to direct it so I'm going to explore this in my post-doc. Then I'll work my way back to Chicago if that's where I want to be when its all over.

I hope the new year is bringing prosperity and a fresh start to you all. I talk to you soon (:


PS. I'm turning 30 in 3 weeks! Another update is soon to follow. . .Stay blessed!
Chi(: