Career Transition Part 3: Owning my D...
[Continued from Career Transition Part 1 and Part 2] I had reached my limit of debating the question of whether I should stay at Yale as a scientific editor or jump to the private sector in a biotech venture capital firm. After two uncomfortable weeks examining my assumptions and visualizing the potential paths, I was […]
Career Transition Part 2: Examining m...
[Continued from Career Transition Part 1] In early March 2018, I found myself in the privileged position of weighing seemingly opposite career opportunities. I had an offer to remain at Yale as an editor of a scientific journal, an offer to leave Yale for a biotech Venture Capital (VC) firm, and an offer to […]
Career Transition Part 1: Losing my I...
*hums REM’s ‘Losing my Religion’…* Do you identify with your job? I didn’t think I did, until I quit my job. And then I quit another job a couple weeks later. Now that I’ve deleted the signature line from my emails, I’m finding myself (again) in the space between stories. I’ve considered myself […]
My most extreme experiment: a 10-day ...
Does the idea of spending 10 days in total silence, prohibited from using your cell phone (and reading and writing!), while trying to meditate for 12 hours a day scare you? It terrified me. Which is why I knew I had to do it: a 10-day silent Vipassana meditation retreat. For the last 5 years, […]
On making plans and letting go
I love making plans and getting things done. My jam-packed, color-coded Google Calendar gained notoriety in grad school, and I’ve uncovered to-do lists I wrote 15 years ago. Few things give me more satisfaction than thinking through scenarios and interdigitating tasks to maximize efficiency. I love mapping out timelines for months, years, and decades. I […]
I’m addicted to Busy
I’m very good at doing lots of things, and I’m very bad at doing nothing. For the past decade, my recurring pattern is filling my schedule to the brim, coasting off adrenaline and dopamine, and appearing to be wildly productive – and then crashing. After these semi-annual crashes, which look like an odd fight or […]
Everything is relative
Today, I turn 29. Depending on whom I ask, I’m ancient or just getting started. Someone may find me remarkably accomplished for my age, while another person will point out that I’m behind on starting a family. Everything is relative. Out on a run a few years ago, I realized that it’s pointless to […]
Growing pains of Professional Adultin...
In the span of two weeks, I went from a financially-challenged academic researcher living solo to a professional landlord living with her partner. I gained a tenant, a commute, a fancy job title (with perks like the company card), and a permanent bedfellow. While I’ve enjoyed flying up the professional totem pole, I have certainly endured […]
What I’ll miss from the lab
Though today is the last day I’ll be in an academic research lab and will soon start my first ‘real job‘ that won’t involve labwork, I very much value my 10 years of laboratory experiences. I’ll miss the little day-to-day moments in a lab. I’ll miss the satisfying snap of ejecting a pipet tip and its subsequent clink […]
I love how love makes me irrational
As a lifelong scientist and relentless achiever, I’ve prided myself on my rationality and have actively worked to execute logically and efficiently. Yet, when my rationality is derailed, I have the most interesting, memorable, and vivid experiences. Operating irrationally makes me more generous, empathetic, creative, and vulnerable, enabling meaningful human connections. Right when I had locked in […]