Posted on behalf of Materials Girl

This is the final part of a three-post series

Being a chemist is not the only thing that evokes an “Oh!” or “Wow…” response – so does being an upperclassman still living in the dorms. We are swamped with freshmen and sophomores, and it has become an internal game for me to single out the new students. They tend to be more talkative and wide-eyed, not to mention garbed in trendy, clique-d, or “fashionable” attire from high school. Perhaps it is imagination, but they also seem to have an aura of being lost.

Still, it is not my place to consider myself much better those younger students, even if I never had problems with drastic change and separation anxiety. In a fleeting two years, my graduating class has progressed from being in their place, and in another two some of us will be there again. Like the current undergrad "noobs"*, I will have to find my place in a new, graduate circle and attempt to find out what to do with myself in the academic world. Ultimately, we all leave the stressful, but relatively safe, bubble of academia and plunge headlong into a new career.

How did you start, through what have you progressed, and to where are you heading?

*Internet lingo for a newcomer. From “newbie” to “newb” to “noob”. ??