USM and a decision

I made it down to Mississippi and met with the Medical Technology Department Chair, Dr. Jane Hudson, of the College of Health at the University of Southern Mississippi. We discussed a few potential plans of graduate study for me. One plan has me taking classes that are more closely aligned to laboratory management--mostly management courses with a few science courses thrown in and a thesis or several academically-documented projects related to molecular microbiology or bioterrorism. The other route has me going through a more intensive scientific plan of study, which will unfortunately require me to go back and at least audit undergraduate organic chemistry and genetics (I didn't get these courses in my undergraduate study). This way I could get biochemistry and then molecular biology; I could choose or not to do the thesis, but I really want to get the experience of higher level graduate writing with the added defense requirement. I have no idea if I'll go on and seek a Ph.D. currently.

I've spent time visiting with old friends in MS; we've had a great visit. I played tennis here with buddies who've advanced tremendously in their playing abilities since I lived here, but I managed to hold my own. I had a lesson with my first tennis teacher, Torbjorn Fasth. Tomorrow we head off to Myrtle Beach for a short weekend before returning home in NC. We have only a short few months before we make our move to MS. I'll have around one month to settle in at our new residence before starting school. It's only a matter of time now before I launch into full-time graduate study.

Grad School? Who me?

Right now, I await the news on whether I've been accepted to graduate school. All signs point to the affirmative, but one never knows; in one reassuring correspondence, the professor at this university told me she didn't see any reason, given what she knew of my academic record, that I would be turned down. I did very well in undergraduate study, but I admit that I'm trepid, and probably unnecessarily so, when it comes to thinking of myself as someone capable of higher science.

After all, we're getting into some difficult, challenging material here--research--hypothesis and experiment design--and the mental skills required to pursue the research to a sound, academically-acceptable conclusion. I never dreamed of myself as a potential researcher, and that was probably out of that sinking fear that I sometimes get. Somehow or another, it always comes down to math. Ha! Self-doubt as a scientist equals self-doubt at mathematics. After all, I'm the guy who stares into space when asked to quickly convert some value in my head. I go off poking around for a calculator, or else some Brainiac from the Planet Krypton computes the figure before I can mutter the first befuddled, quizzical "uh".

But then again, I am a geek--a classic oddball computer-and-science-loving nerd. I can't disappoint the inhabitants of geekdom; I can't mar the reputation of all those claiming the moniker, who have traveled the technical and academically-bound road before me. I have a high standard to live up to. Who said geeks don't feel pressure!