Adventures of a Graduate Student: July 2005

20 July 2005

Kids today...

Today, I was ranted at by a ten year old.

I'm not talking that whole situation where a kid sits there and talks to you about nothing at all, just so they can sit there to talk to you. I'm talking a full-blown rant. Her body was shaking and her eyes were crossing -- I expected her head to rotate next, I was already prepared for a spew of vomit. All because she wanted a toy that cost fifty cents instad of thirty. Good lord...

What are parents teaching their kids nowadays? It always amazes me that the people who are least qualified for parenthood have the most children.

For me, it's just another argument for birth control.

16 July 2005

New employment

This week I started a new job in a Microbiology lab, in a field in which my entire background is a 200-level undergraduate course. Surprisingly enough, I really like it. In fact, I like it so much that I would take it any day over my last lab, where I worked in surprisingly sterile and non-grossing-out conditions. What do I do in my current job?

I process poop.

Ok, so it's not nearly as bad as it might sound. Or maybe it is -- don't worry, I'll let you know. But its always nice to be in a workplace where people are willing to teach you things, and understand exactly what your questions are. It's even nicer when people are friendly, and don't take six weeks to decide they want to spend their time saying hello to you. You know, the little things. My boss is also surprisingly cool -- she's this short woman with grey hair and a good sense of humor. I went to her a week into the job to ask her for some time off for a vacation, with the promise I would do some reading to prepare for a project I could start on. Her response?

"Sure you can go, we're not slave-drivers. But I'm sure your reading will be bodice-rippers and not journal articles."

I'm going to like this job, I think. :)

07 July 2005

More late night thoughts..

Sometimes I look around and I don't know what happened to the world I built when I was younger. I guess the logical answer is that it changed, or it doesn't exist anymore -- the things I saw for myself, all of us saw for ourselves, either have come true or have not.

It's funny, how once in a while you get little snapshots of the life you used to have much later. I'll get excited about a rainbow in the sky or on a wall, or smile when the ceiling fan whips around those little bubbles that flew out of the dishsoap bottle when I put it down. Wildflowers are still pretty, at least before I have to pull them up, and I can fall asleep at night without lying awake in bed, thinking. The other day, I caught up with the last eight years when I went through a box of old photos and cards, trying to figure out what I was going to keep, what I was going to toss. These were things I put away because they were important to me at the time, but it's funny how five or six years can pass and I didn't think about them once.

These are good things -- why do they get lost when we get older? Do we crowd them out, filling our heads with facts and figures and just that little bit more to give us an edge in the real world? Do we think about the things we should have done, what we wish we would have done, just a little bit differently? It's a shame, to lose that little kid we once were, and I really think some of the happiest people I've ever known are still kids at heart, even into their eighties.

But really, I think the biggest difference is that when we're young, we're always looking forward. I couldn't wait for the next birthday, I couldn't wait for next week when I was going to my best friends' houses, and every day at the pool was a treat. As an adult (sorta), I find myself looking backward, thinking about what I should have done, focusing on what's already happened. Vacations seem a lot shorter from that point of view. Maybe if we spend more time looking forward, or even looking around at where we are right now, things might seem less crazy. Stress might go away. We know how, we've done it already -- we are our own Fountains of Youth.

And once I figure it out, I can finally get to sleep.. :)