Who's fighting your battles?

So this past week on my gig we had a poster competition, while my division swept the awards, no one from my group won an award. But when your primary job is to supply research support to others in your division, it's pretty impossible to win (though the ones who did very proudly displayed work from your group, LOL).

This past week was also remarkable in that the interview killer now seems very involved with my work assignments, and let me be real, I DO feel some kinda' way about it. Not because she doesn't have a college degree and not because she doesn't understand much about the science of what's she's doing. I've got a big problem with it because rumor has it that she was very involved with why the last person who worked in my position left.

Not long ago, I'd been told by one of the senior folks in our division to "play the game", which pretty much involved me taking more breaks and having lunch with her and the other people in my group of 4. My motto was "keep your friends close and your enemies closer", and that "worked" for about a week and a half. Then it slowly started occurring to me that I'm no more in a position to fight the "devil" than I am to lift the building I work in, so why had I decided to play a game I can't win?

Now I can easily concede that being friendly with the people you work with is a smart career move. But this witch clearly has it out for me (see previous post) so the idea of spending a lot of my time off with her makes me nauseous. So I'm going to change that and not just because she suggested being a Med Tech would be a great career move for me during a conversation we were having about careers on a break last Friday (and since she interviewed me and has seen my CV, I think I'm correct in assuming she was trying to be funny and not in a "ha ha" kinda way. Not only that, I USED to be a Med Tech in the 90's). So besides all her other "insecurities" with working with me, she's now sweatin' the fact that I scored the highest in our group during the poster competition.

So this is where I rely on my faith, with the clear understanding that it's not my job to neither fight enemies nor spend an enormous time worrying about it. I'm gonna stand tall in my faith in God's bigger plan for my life and keep it movin'!

Which brings me to the 3 jobs I've been asked to interview for, 2 of which I've turned down. The more recent one will need to be pursued further because: 1) It offers some professional autonomy, so no more "stop trying to be the PI" statements, 2) It pays about 30K more than I'm making now which on the outside seems like an advantage, but which is going to come with the unspoken rule of working 50+ hours/week, and 3) This position is at the job that brought me to metro DC 10 years ago. So I have a support system there which I've maintained throughout the 10 years I've lived here. But being a person of strong faith, I had to pray about it and I wasn't going to feel good about even officially applying until I felt God had spoken to me about what to do. This morning I got up, went to church where the pastor spoke about faith which was just what I needed. But when he also spoke about being careful of the company you keep, I felt like I had an answer to my question of whether or not to apply. The app will be submitted today, and I'll be meeting with my contact at this gig sometime this upcoming week.

Moving on to other things, my MCAT score is supposed to be released either Monday or Tuesday and at this point, I'm so not focused on it. Not because I think I aced it because I don't, but because whatever it is, it is. What I am a little worried about is that my score is going to have some crazy spread like, 13(VR), 9(BS), 8(PS) which if that turns out to be the case, I'd have to seriously consider retaking that beast again in Jan of next year given my goal of MD/PhD. I also think I have a good take on the timeline I'm shooting for with applying, so right now I thinking summer 2012 may be the best personal fit.

Speaking of personal, my kid is finally back on track in school with her grades. She also finally won her first games in tennis this season, so while I don't have plans to book seats at the US open in 2014, I think a tennis scholarship to college might be reality one day. I also purchased my first SUV which my sister affectionately calls a station wagon for Moms, but whatever, I'm very involved with my kid's tennis team so more space is just what we both needed. And contrary to her opinion of it, I've got a V8 under the hood along with luxury features, so your everyday minivan type vehicle it is NOT, LOL!! And it's so much fun to drive!!

Well I guess that just about sums up recent happenings in my life, so I'd like to leave you with my favorite excerpt from Steve Jobs' Stanford commencement speech in 2005: "Stay foolish. Stay hungry", which is not very hard to do when you're a 40 something year old premed!!

Have a great week! :)