Last Group Meeting
Jun 27th 2008Wallabynerd alert
So, I have a job. Another temporary job, yes, but it’s a RealJob, or at least a big step in that direction. (Not guaranteed to be free of dead ends.) And it’s definitely mine; mailed off the acceptance letter (to the president! I wonder if he’ll actually read it?) and the polite-but-friendly no-thanks to the other offer.
And so in a month I’m leaving this department. I’m leaving ultrafast lasers that seldom work, and an advisor who doesn’t appear to respect his students. I’m leaving advisors who do respect their students, and who let them take the lead in using some really cool instruments.
I’m leaving some excellent coworkers and friends. (Facebook is not really enough to keep in touch, even when I can find people on it. Hopefully we’ll all wind up at the same conferences.)
I’m leaving behind this town and campus, with its fun things to do and its pretension and its attempts to simultaneously copy Portland (Oregon), New York (New York) and Paris (France).
I’m leaving behind group meetings!! Tomorrow I give my absolute Last Group Meeting Ever, or at least the last one that I’m ever going to worry about. (Assuming I ever have anything like a research group, we will do meetings but not like this. For one thing, I’ll actually pay attention when students present.) Ahh, the thrill of fresh data to analyze and present in the next… 11 hours. Makes me feel like a grad student again!
So naturally I’m procrastinating…
