And so it begins...

I've described the beginning of this Ph.D. program to many as a "new chapter" of my life, so to start reading these posts, then, would be rather like jumping midway into a book if I didn't have some sort of an introduction...




To give you some background on myself and where I came from, I grew up on a small farm with a farmer for a dad and a mom who was also an English teacher. I found high school to be somewhat oppressive and boring, but I made it through. I had tremendous fun getting my B.S. (bullshit degree) in Ecology, where I was pretty successful, and had some amazing opportunities to travel and research. I also played some music on the side, recorded for a couple of albums, and generally made the most of my time as an undergraduate. I was always careful to follow Mark Twain's advice, in that I did not let my classes get in the way of my education.

After graduation, I had a bit of trouble finding a job (who isn't, these days?), but I managed to find a short field job studying birds, and followed that with a long stint working (for free) as a naturalist in the mountains of Central America. (A quick aside: I'm keeping some descriptions and locations pretty vague so that I can maintain a little anonymity here. This is for the benefit of you, reader, because if I'm anonymous enough, I can talk about the more dramatic moments of the next few years without worrying that my advisor will find out I'm telling the whole-wide-internet about it.)

I elected not to pursue an M.S. (more shit degree) and to skip directly to the Ph.D. (Piling it higher and Deeper). I applied to Ph.D. programs at 5 different universities, got mainly rejected, but did get a couple of interviews. I eventually was accepted to grad school, and here I sit at my new place, waiting for the challenges ahead. I've been here just over a week now, and have just finished a general orientation given to all the new grads who are coming in as teaching assistants. Next week I have a few more hoops to jump through as my department (Biology) goes through its own set of sessions to try and prepare us to teach the big general Biology class that all the freshmen will take. It should be interesting, at the very least.

To finish up this post, I'll fill you in on where I am (again in a manner that is infuriatingly vague). I'm  a beginning Ph.D. student in the Biology department at an R1 university in the Northeastern U.S. R1 as a distinction means that this particular university is a major research institution, meaning I have a lot of research ahead of me before I escape with my life (or degree).