Write Here, Write now

Had a Committee meeting before the holidays and I got the OK to start writing my thesis. So I'm making the outline and realizing this is like "What I Did on my Summer Vacation" only it's hundreds of pages longer and is going to contain a lot of big words and acronyms most of my family and friends won't understand. Ok, it's more complicated than that but I've never tried to compile and analyze 5 years of my life before. Luckily, I get to focus on the parts that went well and leave out all the stuff that didn't work. That still leaves a lot to be described and discussed and woven into chapters that tell a story. It's daunting but at least I knew that going in.

What I didn't anticipate is the reaction of other people when I tell them the end is in sight. Most people outside of science say something along the lines of "God, you've been in school forever." Trying to then explain what a "post-doc" is drives home the feeling that thorough training takes forever. And because they're familiar with the training process, most science-friendly people ask about where I'm going next (which is another issue altogether). And still others don't even want to hear about it because their own work has hit a slow point. If I was the type of girl to wear T-shirts, I'd get this one so no one would have to ask:

~LSG