...But I'm not the only one.
Day Four - Thursday
Feeling of the Day: Inspired.
I will honestly admit that I can't believe I've had something to say for every day of this conference. You would that that it would just get repetitive and dull, but in reality every day has brought new ideas and challenges, and I think that's a big part of my passion for this science.
Now I'll admit, not all my inspiration of the day came from the conference. While talking to a friend of mine teaching in Thailand, he was telling me all about his adventures on an elephant preserve. Now elephants are my favourite terrestrial animal, because they produce infrasound just like the loves of my life, the blue whales. But he was telling me these stories (called this because of the lack of scientific evidence, sorry TW!) about suicidal elephants. And that got me thinking about potential connections between the cognitive abilities of animals and their ability to commit suicide (as there have been known cases in dolphins as well, although no papers as of yet).
It's also made me wonder whether there is a connection between the social structure of an animal's grouping and their memory, as elephants are able to recognize the calls of dead martriarchs, and killer whales live in similarly structured pods.
Now, I'm not jumping off the boat just yet, because as you can see, I have connected these ideas to marine mammals, because I have not put in this much time, work, energy and sanity to not study marine mammals.
Add this to the myriad of topics swirling around this conference, and it almost makes me want to scream! There is so much science out there yet to be discovered, and it frustrates me that I can't seem to do it all!
I'm working full steam ahead to get in graduate school now that I have a much better understanding of the 'who's who' of the field. I think I have a decent shot of doing what I want to do for Master's, although the timeline of it all is still a little iffy. But now that I am asking a zillion (real number) additional questions, it makes me want to become a professor just to have student minions to do my bidding in the lab!
I don't think I want to give up my dreams in blue whale infrasound anytime soon, but all these other questions are just so intriguing, it's hard to just leave them alone. For the time being they are written down, and maybe if I get desperate or lucky, I'll have a chance to work on these projects on the side.
So I guess I should give some advice now... I guess it would be to not be afraid to branch out from what you think your singular goal is. A lot of biologists don't study the same thing for their entire lives, so you never know where your career is going to take you. Don't wait too long though, otherwise someone else might have the same idea as you (as I realize that once again, I've shared my own ideas with the general internet public... damn). At the same time, it's not always about having your name on the paper. Sometimes it's just about finding out the information. I'd almost be just as happy to hear the results of someone doing the work on these ideas than doing the research myself. Almost.
Friday might be a slow day. Everything is winding down, and Thursday night is the Student fundraiser party. It's going to be a late night!
Speak Loud!
PS. On another inspired note, if a certain newly created fund (you know what I'm talking about) has not already been promised to any particular organization, I think it should become a funding opportunity for Jewish females pursuing a career in the research sciences (emphasis on non-medical). Just saying.
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