Hey guys!
So I know I haven't been updating lately at all but I've basically been busy and not very motivated to post about anything in particular, but I this time I am excited, and why you may ask? Because I have spent the last few month worried about a lot of things, including life after my undergrad and my summer and work experience and all that jazz. But some of the things are starting to come together and hopefully they will stay this way. But basically I was worried about work and getting experience in my field.
I was worried that I would have no experience and I would still not know where I would be headed by the end of this summer especially cause I would be applying to grad school next yea. And I was torn between going back to work where I work and doing something that is related to my field.
In the end I decided that I was going to go back to work cause hey, money and I like people I work with and do volunteering on the side. I had applied to volunteering and I had also applied to a lab position, my GPA isn't very great right now so I obviously got rejected from the lab, but the volunteering got through, and to be honest the volunteering was extremely last minute, but apparently, my boss gave me a kick ass reference. So so far, my summer will be working and then volunteering which I would love because I have realized hat I can't work in a lab, it would kill me to sit and stare at bacteria for a few hours a day. I want to work with people and this volunteering opportunity will give me an amazing chance to see if it is really what I want first hand.
On the side of work, I think it will be a good season too. I love the management team that we have been putting together and I think that the team will work very well. I am also getting people in and I think they would be great additions to the team. I am also working on getting a car, and that would make so many things this summer so easily.
I am also going to be going on a trip right after finals to NYC! With my grandparents, but the important part is that I still get to travel and get way for a little bit. I'm excited because I will be seeing some of the family that I didn't get to see this summer because of work and I will also be able to go back to NYC where I feel like everything is just so different (maybe cause I've had a good experience the last 2 times I was there).
And finally, I applied to a undergraduate TA position for next fall and so far things are looking good on that front, I have a good reference form two TAs and I did very well in the class. It would be a paid Ta position and it would also be done with a friend of mine! Interviews will be in May, so I'm really looking forward to that :D
Well that is why I am so excited. I'm basically on tract to most of the things I wanted to get done in the next year or so. Obviously there is more, but so far this is all coming together and I am getting very excited. The only thing left is a trip down south or to a cruise. The other major thing I would want to do is to go to Hong Kong in December :D
-J
Friday, March 28, 2014
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
What is on the Other Side of This Mountain?
Hey guys!
So as you guys may know, I have been very stressed about my future lately. I am currently a U2 student, which means that I will be graduating next semester and then, well... life happens. Not that life hasn't already started, but I think you guys know what I mean, like a real job, getting your own place to live and all that stuff. Hopefully I can still bum at my parents place for, maybe forever :P but it is scary.
Right now I am looking for something a little more in my field, which for those of you who don't know it is in the science field, more on the cell biology/anatomy/pharmacology side of science and it is getting a little tricky. Some of you might know that I failed a class previously, and if I actually never mentioned that, then yes, I have failed a class before and it took one hell of a bite out of my GPA. But it's getting tricky because I failed that class and cause of that my GPA sucks, plus I have no lab experience, so good luck to me to finding a job in my own field when I am competing with people with amazing GPAs and people that are ultra competitive because they want to get into med school.
I emailed a lab recently to ask for a position they were offering and the response was basically, you are not a competitive enough candidate due to your GPA, you would to be very successful because we are looking for someone who is competitive enough to be able to win an award. Obviously worded nicer than that, to be honest, I would have preferred to not have had a response, it would have been less of a punch in the face.
I'm worried because it is hard to get into a lab, they expect you to have experience and to have an amazing GPA, and I just don't have either. But let's face it, not everyone is a 4.0 super decorated GPA 21 year old. But it is the career path I chose, so I guess I have to suck it up and hope for the best right?
I know not many labs will take people like me because we are seen as the slackers and the ones that can't win awards, but how would they know? They look at one thing and that is what they judge you with, but not all hardworking people get the best results (although in this case it is the truth) but some people fall into the cracks and we all fail at some point in our lives, we don't always get what we get. So it is hard, and to be honest, if I was hiring someone I would judge based on the same criteria. But at the same time, I'm 21, and I'm trying to figure out my life, what do I like? what do I want? How do I know, I haven't even lived for that long yet!
It's hard though, seeing people you know get amazing grades, or get amazing job/school opportunities and here I am, wandering around, dragging my feet while so many people around me are achieving greatness. Some are more humble about it than others and some aren't happy with what they have, but I can guarantee you that if you were in my shoes looking at you, you would be happier in your position than in mine. Although I love my current job, it's not something that is going to lead me anywhere in life. If I were in business it would be an amazing thing for me now, I recently recruited people for this years wave of employees and I have experience in employee training and management, but does any of that count in my field? Not that I have seen so far. I'm not complaining though, thanks to this job i have made friends with people that I have never expected to make friends with and I have gotten the chance to get out of my shell and stand up for myself when I need to. I was one hell of an unconfident girl before this job (not that I am that much better now, but the me 4 years ago and the me now is a totally different girl). But it is still hard to look at what everyone else is accomplishing and look at what I am accomplishing. I mean one of my old TA's who is a year or two older than me, just got accepted into a PhD program at the University of Oxford in a program that only accepts 5 people annually, she's worked at 6 labs already and she has TA'd, she has also been in arts programs and she also teaches herself to play an amazing array of instruments and she finds time to have fun and kick ass. How do people have so much talent (not to mention time)?!
No, I am not jealous of her, in fact, I think she deserves it, she is amazingly humble and she is amazingly talented and I think this is something she deserves because she has that drive and that passion in her that a a lot of people in this day and age and not to mention, people in science, don't have. She is genuinely nice and humble and in my mind, she deserves this opportunity more than any other science student I know.
But once again, it gets scary to see people around me accomplish such amazing things, while I still feel like a fish floating around, going nowhere, or trying to get somewhere but end up swimming in circles coming back to the same thing over and over again. I've thought of career paths in the future, but none of them necessarily feel right or seem right, and I'm worried that by the time I get to the top of this mountain, I won't like what I see on the other side, or worse, find out that it's a cliff with nothing but a void on the other side.
-J
So as you guys may know, I have been very stressed about my future lately. I am currently a U2 student, which means that I will be graduating next semester and then, well... life happens. Not that life hasn't already started, but I think you guys know what I mean, like a real job, getting your own place to live and all that stuff. Hopefully I can still bum at my parents place for, maybe forever :P but it is scary.
Right now I am looking for something a little more in my field, which for those of you who don't know it is in the science field, more on the cell biology/anatomy/pharmacology side of science and it is getting a little tricky. Some of you might know that I failed a class previously, and if I actually never mentioned that, then yes, I have failed a class before and it took one hell of a bite out of my GPA. But it's getting tricky because I failed that class and cause of that my GPA sucks, plus I have no lab experience, so good luck to me to finding a job in my own field when I am competing with people with amazing GPAs and people that are ultra competitive because they want to get into med school.
I emailed a lab recently to ask for a position they were offering and the response was basically, you are not a competitive enough candidate due to your GPA, you would to be very successful because we are looking for someone who is competitive enough to be able to win an award. Obviously worded nicer than that, to be honest, I would have preferred to not have had a response, it would have been less of a punch in the face.
I'm worried because it is hard to get into a lab, they expect you to have experience and to have an amazing GPA, and I just don't have either. But let's face it, not everyone is a 4.0 super decorated GPA 21 year old. But it is the career path I chose, so I guess I have to suck it up and hope for the best right?
I know not many labs will take people like me because we are seen as the slackers and the ones that can't win awards, but how would they know? They look at one thing and that is what they judge you with, but not all hardworking people get the best results (although in this case it is the truth) but some people fall into the cracks and we all fail at some point in our lives, we don't always get what we get. So it is hard, and to be honest, if I was hiring someone I would judge based on the same criteria. But at the same time, I'm 21, and I'm trying to figure out my life, what do I like? what do I want? How do I know, I haven't even lived for that long yet!
It's hard though, seeing people you know get amazing grades, or get amazing job/school opportunities and here I am, wandering around, dragging my feet while so many people around me are achieving greatness. Some are more humble about it than others and some aren't happy with what they have, but I can guarantee you that if you were in my shoes looking at you, you would be happier in your position than in mine. Although I love my current job, it's not something that is going to lead me anywhere in life. If I were in business it would be an amazing thing for me now, I recently recruited people for this years wave of employees and I have experience in employee training and management, but does any of that count in my field? Not that I have seen so far. I'm not complaining though, thanks to this job i have made friends with people that I have never expected to make friends with and I have gotten the chance to get out of my shell and stand up for myself when I need to. I was one hell of an unconfident girl before this job (not that I am that much better now, but the me 4 years ago and the me now is a totally different girl). But it is still hard to look at what everyone else is accomplishing and look at what I am accomplishing. I mean one of my old TA's who is a year or two older than me, just got accepted into a PhD program at the University of Oxford in a program that only accepts 5 people annually, she's worked at 6 labs already and she has TA'd, she has also been in arts programs and she also teaches herself to play an amazing array of instruments and she finds time to have fun and kick ass. How do people have so much talent (not to mention time)?!
No, I am not jealous of her, in fact, I think she deserves it, she is amazingly humble and she is amazingly talented and I think this is something she deserves because she has that drive and that passion in her that a a lot of people in this day and age and not to mention, people in science, don't have. She is genuinely nice and humble and in my mind, she deserves this opportunity more than any other science student I know.
But once again, it gets scary to see people around me accomplish such amazing things, while I still feel like a fish floating around, going nowhere, or trying to get somewhere but end up swimming in circles coming back to the same thing over and over again. I've thought of career paths in the future, but none of them necessarily feel right or seem right, and I'm worried that by the time I get to the top of this mountain, I won't like what I see on the other side, or worse, find out that it's a cliff with nothing but a void on the other side.
-J
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)