Boston is an interesting city, though it seems that they may follow the philosophy of “doing what you majored in” a bit more closely than most in the United States. I continue to find that I may be qualified for lab research, but for business? Not so much. (There’s also not a shortage of individuals with business degrees here, so that likely doesn’t help much.)
And I’ve realized that’s fine because I’d rather do science right now anyway.
Over the last month I’ve had time to reevaluate what some of my life goals are and how, lately, I’ve been following a “shoot, then point” path without any real direction. Where do I want to end up? Somewhere. How to I want to get there? Somehow. That’s really not a legitimate path to follow… mostly because this could only vaguely be called a path.
So, where to now? I’ll be back in Kentucky next week to attend The Bell Awards. My mother is one of the recipients this year for the award, honoring those who are active in community by volunteering their time. I’m proud of her achievements and am glad I get to attend the ceremony. She volunteers in the Child Life department at Kosair Children’s Hospital (short description of the recipients, PDF link).
After that visit home, though, I plan to head further south. I’m in the process of applying for graduate school in oceanography and intend to get some more experience in the interim time period. I realized after my experience at Friday Harbor Labs last fall that, if I decided to pursue science, I would be doing oceanography. Well, a year later, that’s my decision. I don’t want to do research forever, and I intend to get an MBA in the future as well, but oceanography is where I intend to focus a substantial part of my life.
The other reason I’d like to get further into oceanography is a bit more outlandish (even out of this world), delving into astrobiological topics that center on water as the essential source of known life. There’s also a substantial philosophical world that can coincide with astrobiology topics, and I’m looking forward for the opportunity to ask questions that both can and cannot be answered.
There’s more to all of this, but that’s the plan in a nutshell. As always, it should be interesting.