meisa's lagoon

failure. that's what most days are in the lab. it's amazing how all of us here aren't on prozac. or maybe everyone is, and i just don't know it.
someone told me today that they were fed up. that they were no longer the same person they were before, how they'd turned into an unhappy, bitter person. it was almost as though i were talking to an incarnation of myself a year or two ago.
the decision to carry on with this career path has been one i've struggled with since i've come. it seems as though the reason i came to this program have all fizzled away in my mind. i used to love chemistry. i thought it was amazing, awe inspiring and beautiful. and now, when i stop to think about it, i really can't figure out what i found so beautiful about it.
grad school has changed me immensely. in some ways i'm a better person. but while i used to always be a glass is half full kind of person, now i kind of look at the glass from every angle and try to figure out whether it really is half full.
i didn't know what to say to this struggling coworker. do i say "yes, quit. find something that will make you happy everyday. or at least something that won't leave you failing all the time." or do i tell her that she came here for a reason, and while that reason is hard to remember now, she may regret leaving her dream behind.
i would say that i've stayed here for lack of other options. it's the easy route, right? i'm already here after all, and theoretically it won't take longer than 5 years. so the easiest thing is just to ride it out.
who knows? maybe i would have been happier finding something else. but you have to make a choice, i guess. and i've made mine...for now.
best of luck to her in her choice. it's different for everyone. i wish i could have given her advice, but since i don't know what the right choices are i didn't have much to offer her. but at least she knows she's not alone. and at least i also know that i'm not alone.