I am very much looking forward to this fall semester. I am taking one class on Teaching and Learning in STEM courses, teaching three sections of Biology & Society Lab, and am serving as co-organizer of the food for weekly EBIO Colloquia. My primary goals for the semester are to publish my work on biocrust natural recovery, draft a manuscript on cultivated biocrust for restoration, and to apply for research grants which will cover my summer salary (my final summer of my PhD). At this point, I am not looking to add more research projects. I am looking to give each project the time it deserves, but to also finish them and prepare for my next steps.
As I watch my classmates give their public talks and defend their dissertations, get married and/or pregnant, and then apply for and move on to new jobs, I realize how fleeting my time here at CU really is. All the people I have met and connected with, all the memories I have in various buildings and with specific instruments will be reduced to words on a page, published for a few people to read. I am not sure where I am headed next, or where inspiration will strike. My friend Meghann quit her job and travelled across America for the last 6 months. She has seen tide pools and lightning-sparked wildfires, laughed at amphibians hitching a ride on a dog and has felt the tumultuous joys of living out of one's car. I wonder if she feels intense purpose/drive now. I wonder if when we meet again it will feel as if nothing has changed, neither of us knowing exactly where we are headed but intensely grateful for the opportunities that have come our way and the people we've encountered as we ramble.
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AuthorSierra is a graduate student in the Barger Lab at CU Boulder studying microbial ecology for dryland restoration. Archives
August 2023
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