I am here, once again, trying to restart this blog writing thing. I might change things up a little as far as what I'm writing about. I might try to write about science news, education or the anti-science sentiment that seems to be quite prevalent in the US. But for now, I'll just try to be a little more consistent in posting and submit this update on myself:
First, I have a job, sort of. I'm doing some free-lance editing for a company that edits journal articles by non-native English speakers who wish to publish in English language journals. I actually like it a lot and believe it will greatly improve my own writing, technical or otherwise. So I'm excited about this opportunity. The company seems to be very well run with the potential for growth. It's very flexible and I'm very happy for the opportunity to learn and gain experience with them.
Second, I have learned we will be moving to Okinawa in about a year for three years. (I am a military wife, after all). At first, I was devastated by this news. What was I going to do there? How am I going to continue growing in my career on an island in the Pacific? Well, lucky for me, my bff (ok, I've never met him, but I've been in the same room with him...) Sydney Brenner (Nobel Laureate and father of C. elegans science) decided to help the Japanese government start an international research institute on the island of Okinawa to foster international collaboration and establish a graduate school. Six years later, his vision is being realized and there are approximately 50 faculty working at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, and they are supposed to become accredited as a graduate school sometime this year. So...needless to say, I have just contacted them to enquire about positions or figure out how to enquire about positions. While I don't necessarily want to go back to working in a lab, I'm hoping there will be an opportunity to work at the institute in some other capacity. And if I do end up back in a lab, I can choose something new and different to learn about while I'm there. I'm hoping that being isolated and small will work to my advantage since I imagine they don't get many PhD military spouses coming to the island looking for work.
That's about it from here. I'm trying to enjoy our last year in the US for awhile, and I'm still trying to figure out what I want to do with my life. I'm working on my resume, trying to talk to people, reading books like "What Color is your Parachute". Most importantly, I think, I'm looking at life like an adventure and I have some amazing opportunities coming up to live abroad and see new and different things every day. Hopefully I'll stay this optimistic throughout this whole process.
