Hi everyone! I miss you so much. I'm poking my head above the dark and churning waters of dispair lecture preparation for just a few seconds to give you a teensy update, but then I need to retreat back into my brain so I can come up with another week's worth of content. How on earth do you people DO this??
It was just about one year ago today that I was off in a distant part of the country, promoting the shit out of myself. One of the stops on my Self Promotion Tour was a visit with an acquaintance who'd just started up his lab several months before, and I remember being super impressed that he already had stuff going on--there were people! And animals! And science!! How did he get going so fast? I couldn't possibly.
And yet, here we are. If you'd been on a self-promotion tour in NJC and come to visit me in my lab last week, you'd have found me in my office, working on lectures. Poke your head around the corner into the lab and you'd see my awesome tech expertly teaching undergrads a technique that she herself learned only a few weeks ago. You'd hear, above the dulcet tones of Pitchfork's most highly rated albums of 2011, the gentle whir/clatter of stir bars going. My awesome grad student would have been at his computer, preparing for his journal club presentation. And down the hall, animal behavior was being recorded--bona fide data collection.
This is happening, people! The feeling is that mix of disbelief, fear, and elation much like that first moment your mom or dad lets go of the seat of your bike and you don't immediately tip over. Unsteady, thrilling, AaaahhhhhIIIIIIII'm dooooooinnngggg iiiiiiiiittttttt!!!!! It is awesome.
Now, this is not to say that every single thing in the lab is up and running--I made a conscious decision to start with the bare bones basics and work up from there. My fancier techniques are still waiting on equipment to arrive, and I know optimizing those will be a struggle. We will tip over more than once, I'm sure. But right now things seem to going relatively smoothly, and with any luck, we can stay upright until this #^$%#%^*#@ class is over.
Dr Becca has a new job (NJ) as a tenure-track assistant professor in the neurosciences at New Job University (NJU), located in New Job City (NJC). She is still fumbling, just making a little more money doing it.
I would have predicted no less, but congratulations on getting your lab up and running. We all know it took a lot of hard work to get this accomplished!
Aw, thanks DM! Indeed, a lot of hard work--and more to come...
Congratulations!
Also, can you be more specific in recommending 2011 albums? My grad students refuse to listen to music, and I can't keep track of what is hip.
Thanks! Some of my favorite 2011 albums are from:
War on Drugs
James Blake
The Weeknd
Washed Out
Bon Iver
The Antlers
PJ Harvey
Enjoy!
First time my dad let go of my bikeseat, I didn't realize he had let go, biked smoothly down the courtyard. As soon as I realized he had let go, I steered straight into a cement planter.
This makes me fear for my own lab.
Isn't that always the way? I just have to be careful never to look behind me...
Awesome! How fun the feeling of joy.
(although, you're probably very correct on the optimisation of the heavy equipment/fancier techniques. Good luck! It's only a matter of giving it time.)
Thanks, chall!
Yay! Congrats! Here's to smooth sailing and a productive lab!
Yay, thanks! I will certainly drink to that!
It's amazing, right??! Simultaneously exciting and terrifying. Good luck with the lectures. I never truly appreciated what went into one until I did it myself...dredding the next set I have to put together.....
I never want to have to make a course from scratch again. I already got confirmation from my chair that I can just teach this course again in the fall, which will be orders of magnitude easier than it is now. And hopefully from then on, either this course if I have to do a lecture, or paper-reading grad seminars.
Yes, putting together an entire course from scratch (especially for undergrads) is a HUGE investment of time and energy. Good luck, good luck, good luck!!!!
Also, don't worry if you're taking a long time to put your notes together. The more time you spend now on writing high quality legible notes, the less prep time you will need when teaching that course in the future. I spent more time putting together my lecture notes for the first class I ever taught than I have on any other course. And to this day, it is still the easiest course for me to prep for (and I've taught *a lot* of new preps since then).
Good luck!
Oooh, so very happy to read this post! Yay! You need some cool streamers for your shiny new lab bike handlebars! Like these.
Oooh, YES, Zuska!! I can put them on all our pipettors!
Simply awesome
Considering the despair via IM, the joy via blog makes me relax for you
woot woot!!! I knew you would be a new PI rockstar. nice work!
W00t! Thanks Gerty! You're my inspiration, you know
So happy for you Becca -- honestly and enthusiastically happy for you!! It can be so nerve racking when the torch is passed to you, but it's so damn rewarding when you run that torch successfully in the race. God speed and keep up the ass kicking! Oh and keep up the drinking and cocktail making too -- lord only knows nothing would be possible without booze.