New start

The hardest thing is starting, but the most important thing is to begin. And beginning is hard. Write now

Work!

The best thing to do when life gets overwhelming is simply to sit down and ...drum roll ...work. I always forget that the secret to feeling out of control is to take control. There's a small space between inaction and anxiety and action that can knock me out if I let it. Carpe diem is always the best advice; I simply don't always remember it.

Thought of the day

Thinking alot about what if I had to do it all over again these days. So many other fields come to mind -- child development (based on Alan Alda's wonderful series on the spark that makes us human), stem cell researcher, science historian. Funny since I never really gravitated towards science but it found me late in life and now I'm sort of addicted to it. Of course the information I have is rather scattered, depending on what research I'm currently writing about.  I follow in the investigator's footsteps, parsing Wikipedia entries and articles until I understand their findings, and then move onto the next finding.

In this haphazard way, I've learned about everything from short term memory loss to aphasia to retinoblastoma to gastric bypass -- like I said, quite the mishmash.

What was it that kept me from seriously pursuing science studies? Partly being a woman and partly fear of math (although I did quite well) and partly insecurity and lack of confidence. Maybe the hard work as well and the need to find something totally different than anyone else, which I think is also a product of the same insecurity -- when you feel worthless, you want to shine somewhere and being a writer -- which is what I wanted and what I got -- seemed more striking and brave, particularly when attending a college where 70 percent of the students were pre-med.

So our paths are forged.