meisa's lagoon

i just finished my first week on the job. i have never worked so hard before in my life. theoretically, the hardest i ever worked should have been in grad school. but i used to walk down the halls back to the lab taking my sweet time. and when people walked fast i was always like "where's the fire, dude?" well, not really. but i always wondered why and how they could be in such a rush to get back to lab. it was still going to be there even if you got there five minutes later. but this week i learned. i learned what it is like to constantly be on the go and rushing to get to one place or another or get something done because you have a ton of people counting on you and a billion more things to do in the next hour.
i am responsible for the scientific education of a slew of teenagers. while that might not sound like much, it means a lot to me. i want them all to come away loving science - or at least appreciating it. i feel like if i do a bad job, i'm failing them. and let me tell you, even to do a bad job takes a lot of work. i've been so involved at work, that nothing else even came into my radar this week. my home life has fallen apart this first week of school. every room of the house looks like a tornado has gone through it. i wake up in the middle of the night remembering that i need to collect rocks outside for a lab, or that i promised i would take care of something or another for someone or another. a lot of stress. but i think i decided it's good stress. i've had a rollercoaster of emotions this week and i think at the end of it all, i've decided i like what i do. it's fun, and i'm contributing to the world. i get to build young minds, and that's pretty cool.