Scientist or Teacher?

That's the 64,000 dollar question. It has been a strangely liberating experience to be free of the ball and chain of academic science. I spent one semester in a neuroscience Ph.D. program and I decided to call it quits a few weeks into my second semester. Why, you ask? Isn't getting a Ph.D. full of glamor and glory? Absolutely not. In the first place, I was in the program to eventually teach at a university. After spending a semester pretending I was concerned about the statistical significance of a microscopic red spot on a confocal image of the parafasicular nucleus of a rat brain, I realized that my talents lie elsewhere. I am glad someone is concerned about the infinitely small details of human life, but I'd rather be explaining those details to eager young minds.

It turns out I have the heart of a teacher. Yes, my teaching has a lot of room for improvement, but that will come with practice. I feel as if a huge burden has been lifted as I have walked away from my Ph.D.- and not the burden of heavy textbooks! I no longer have to prove to anyone that I am "smart". For the first time in my life, my identity is no longer tied up in my academic performance. Maybe it takes a massive detour to prove you were going the right way the first time.