Life Takes a 180-Degree Turn:
I've gone on a couple of interviews at local research labs, and it looks like I'll have a job very soon. I am really looking forward to starting my new life in the real world of the gainfully employed, and leaving the illogical world of amateur athletics far behind.
It's amazing how different things are outside the country club atmosphere of U.S. Speedskating. When I went on my interviews, there was talk of how my C.V. stood out; how my experience and skills would fit into the lab's projects; which person would show me around the lab and get me started so that I could start contributing to the goals of the lab.
Funding for science is hard to come by these days, mostly due to Dubya's "extracurricular activities." If a lab wants to hire a technician, they're going to do everything they can to make sure that person succeeds, because the techincian's motivation to make experiments work and to have their name on a published paper is in line with the goals of the lab.
Such a lab is not going to do the equivalent of sending an injured athlete to the starting line at an international competition. And the lab boss certainly wouldn't think of going around behind the technician's back, switching the labels on reagent bottles, "just to see what happens" when the person sets up an experiment the next day. But this is what life was like for me in U.S. Speedskating.
My life as a speedskater was like treading water in a rough sea, wearing ankle weights, trying to scale a slippery wall of rock while some people standing on the ledge up above were throwing bricks at my head, and others were standing there watching me drown, just for fun. Now that I've left that oppressive environment, I have people telling me that I should be applying for the Lab Specialist positions, because with all the skills I have, I don't need to be starting as an entry-level Lab Tech after all.
It is true that, in speedskating, I was only able to handle about three times the adversity as the Chosen Ones, but not ten times the adversity. If anyone wants to say that I'm weak or that I'm a loser because I could only overcome three times the adversity but not ten, then they are welcome to do so. This is no longer my problem.
But considering the results of U.S.S.'s programs so far this season, they may have to think about whether their clannishness, their unwelcoming attitudes, aversion to development of the sport, and their treatment of some skaters as "intruders" are truly serving them in the achievement of their own goals and mission statement.
I've gone on a couple of interviews at local research labs, and it looks like I'll have a job very soon. I am really looking forward to starting my new life in the real world of the gainfully employed, and leaving the illogical world of amateur athletics far behind.
It's amazing how different things are outside the country club atmosphere of U.S. Speedskating. When I went on my interviews, there was talk of how my C.V. stood out; how my experience and skills would fit into the lab's projects; which person would show me around the lab and get me started so that I could start contributing to the goals of the lab.
Funding for science is hard to come by these days, mostly due to Dubya's "extracurricular activities." If a lab wants to hire a technician, they're going to do everything they can to make sure that person succeeds, because the techincian's motivation to make experiments work and to have their name on a published paper is in line with the goals of the lab.
Such a lab is not going to do the equivalent of sending an injured athlete to the starting line at an international competition. And the lab boss certainly wouldn't think of going around behind the technician's back, switching the labels on reagent bottles, "just to see what happens" when the person sets up an experiment the next day. But this is what life was like for me in U.S. Speedskating.
My life as a speedskater was like treading water in a rough sea, wearing ankle weights, trying to scale a slippery wall of rock while some people standing on the ledge up above were throwing bricks at my head, and others were standing there watching me drown, just for fun. Now that I've left that oppressive environment, I have people telling me that I should be applying for the Lab Specialist positions, because with all the skills I have, I don't need to be starting as an entry-level Lab Tech after all.
It is true that, in speedskating, I was only able to handle about three times the adversity as the Chosen Ones, but not ten times the adversity. If anyone wants to say that I'm weak or that I'm a loser because I could only overcome three times the adversity but not ten, then they are welcome to do so. This is no longer my problem.
But considering the results of U.S.S.'s programs so far this season, they may have to think about whether their clannishness, their unwelcoming attitudes, aversion to development of the sport, and their treatment of some skaters as "intruders" are truly serving them in the achievement of their own goals and mission statement.
posted by Eva at 10:07 AM
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