By far, the busiest month of the year for me this year was November.
Let’s recap:
- I went to my alma mater to speak about graduate school at the undergrad seminar
- I went to San Francisco to present my research at the AIChE National Conference
- I decided to switch research groups for the remainder of my PhD
- I cooked my first Thanksgiving dinner
- I decided to start down the path of becoming a Beachbody coach
- I delved into starting to write a novel
But I don’t want to talk about all of those things… I just want to focus on Thanksgiving. Because although all of these were good things, and I feel that I will find my success from each and every one, there is nothing I am more thankful for in 2016 than this past Thanksgiving.
For Thanksgiving dinner, I made a good chunk of the food, and dad helped with the turkey, I guess. (He put it in the oven, and took it out- which I realized while watching him that I probably have more upper body strength than he does now given our current lifestyles). But mom wasn’t with us. I called her a couple of times to clarify what I was supposed to do, and not everything was perfect, but I only used a recipe for cookies and the table was set when the family arrived. So, it was a good day. Also, we took a field trip to be with mom in the hospital and had a great time. I wouldn’t ask for that to happen again, but I was more thankful this year than any of the years when things seemed “okay.”
The fact of the matter is that even best laid plans can fall through, that happened with almost every single bullet point above. Although I look back and only think about the positive, somethng either went wrong or was wrong. But that’s the thing about memories: most of the time we choose if it’s going to be a happy memory or a sad memory and then we go with that. I chose happy, and I love my decision.
She’s Got a Whole PhD 