> > From: Mary Ann Sesma <msesma at zeus.bell.k12.ca.us>
> > .....[...].....
> > I have had and will continue to have what I consider to be a life filled
> > with unplanned events: valleys of dispair and peaks of adventure and
> > the scars and accolades match.
> >
> > I would not trade my life for anything.
> >
> > SO--Carpe diem
S L Forsburg, PhD forsburg at salk.edu writes
> Mary Ann, thank you once again for your wise perspective...
> what a wonderful note. I agree with you; it is only now in my mid30s
> that I have finally realized that this is what I've got and I'd
> better start living it. It's too easy going through school, grad
> school, postdoc to say "I just have to get through this and then
> I can think about my life!" I wish I had spent my 20s not living for
> the future but for the present, taken more time outside the lab, and not
> been in such a hurry ...
>> (But don't tell my students that. ;-)
My spirits were also raised by Mary Ann's message. Being able to say "I
would not trade my life for anything", looking back on a full and varied
life is the ultimate success.
My career trajectory is more like Susan's, however: I also stepped
through the high school, undergrad, grad, post-doc with no breaks or
detours. I also look back and imagine things that I would have liked to
have done, and sometimes feel that I lack perspective about the real
world. My first job was in a research lab at a children's hospital, when
I was 17 and fresh out of high school, and I've worked at research since
then (15 years, since I'm 32). I love doing research, so this is good
thing.
