I’m A Happy(er) Scientist Now!

Ben Ferguson -- I was in a funk. Now, I’m out. Mostly.

Just as funks come and go, grooves come and go too. Grooves are what make this all worth it, the drug that keeps the highs high enough and the troughs infrequent enough to stay hooked on this stuff.

One of my research advisors in college related to me once the time when he finally fell in love with research. He’d not done much research during his college time, and what little research he did do didn’t appeal to him too much. (In retrospect, it was an experience not dissimilar from my own.) When the time came to decide where his life after college would take him, he could think of only two things: medical school or graduate school, neither of which really stimulated him all that much. He chose the latter -- med school seemed too hard and was too certain for someone in a very uncertain phase of his life.

Shortly after starting grad school, he did find some success with it and eventually came to love it. That first piece of good data, he said, data that both demonstrates something of importance but also leads to bigger and better questions, was the clincher for him. It was like an addiction that he couldn’t shake. He was hooked, and each new experiment led to new insights and questions that demanded answers. It’s like reading a mystery novel but pausing at the last ten pages; how could you not go on?

So, I’m getting there. While my data isn’t spectacular at the moment, it’s really interesting in that it’s somewhat unexpected. Pair that with a fairly new and unexplored area of research, and I’ve got myself a nice little project. Each new piece of the puzzle leads to more questions, and to say I’m excited to see what comes out of it would be an understatement. Stay tuned.