So, I have never written a blog. I write a lot of emails, I sometimes write in a journal. I have toyed with the idea of writing a blog, but then thought it was fairly presumptuous of me to think that other people would actually want to read what I had to write. Especially considering I can be long-winded.
But here I am, writing a blog. Maybe. I might not tell anyone I know about it, so who knows if anyone will read it?
I guess I can start by telling a little about myself. I'm an academic postdoc at a Big U studying biology. I've been here for about 1 3/4 years. I had a nice, successful, and relatively painless stint as a grad student with a fantastic advisor (I had no idea how great she was until I experienced something different). I moved back to my home state after grad school, rekindled an old romance, found a postdoc position, and got married. In that order.
The postdoc started off great, went sour, and is now neutral. I suppose. But more (probably MUCH more) on that later. The marriage is great, but also a challenge because it's not just a regular marriage, it's a military marriage. And I sort of knew, but now really understand, how much control the military has over my life. I might as well have signed up myself, I would be getting paid more than I am as a postdoc!
So, I guess the point of all this is trying to figure out: 1) what I want to do when I grow up, 2) how I'm supposed to do that when the military will be telling us where to live for the next 12 years, 3) how to be supportive of my husband's career while it's possibly destroying mine, and 4) how to find a job that I love as much as I love science in general. If anyone has any ideas now, let me know.
I guess that's all for now.
Welcome to the fray! Sounds like quite a dilemma. I am also married to a military man, but he's Guard reserve and his full-time job with the DoD is technically a civilian position so thankfully I don't have to worry about the moving around all the time and what not.
ReplyDeleteMany people around this blog community will probably tell you to find a school you love, go there, and be away from your husband until he is able to rejoin you. For some of those people, that solution works for them. I know I couldn't do it.
This may be an even stupider suggestion but I don't know what branch your husband is in or any of the other relevant details - but what if you joined as well in your area of biology as an officer? The pay isn't bad and the benefits sure as hell don't suck.
JLK-
ReplyDeleteThanks! Yeah, I don't think I could just go do what I want to do and meet up with him after it's all over (particularly since I still don't know what I want to do!). What's the point of being married then? I've never looked into the military for myself, but maybe some sort of civilian job? I don't know about that though...
All I know is that being a career-only girl isn't enough, being a family-only girl isn't enough, but finding a balance between the two isn't easy. Especially when you throw in the military. But I guess finding a balance is what everyone else is trying to do!
Welcome to the blogosphere, Worm Pilot! Looking forward to your writing :)
ReplyDeleteI'm late to the party... I looked for your profile after you left a comment on my blog awhile back but that was clearly before you started writing :)
ReplyDeleteAs for "who's reading", I don't know either if my writings are that interesting for others, but it's a nice venting thing I find. Especially when you get some comments every once inawhile and some feedback!