A long time ago in a previous life I though I'd be a Doc instead of a mother.
I did a PhD in Molecular Immunology, looking at the possibilities of engineering a plasmid vector that would inhibit the reproduction of the HIV virus inside the white blood cells that it infects. I loved the intellectual side of research, although the day-to-day monotony of repeating experiments left a lot to be desired, and dreamed of changing the world in some significant way.
Then I realised how much my husband meant to me and that there was life outside the ridiculous hours that my work required of me. I couldn't have a family and this career and woke up one day just knowing that a family was more important.
I often wonder who I would have become if I'd not made that life-changing decision and instead I'd gone on to run my own lab and devote my life to science. Would I have cured AIDS?? Totally unlikely but a girl can dream...... I would certainly have been a harder and less compassionate person. My home may have been much closer to my perfect ideal but the cost would have been an empty heart.
9 comments:
Lovely pic, and brilliant journalling! Wonder what life would have been like if you had made different decisions!
Wow!!! That is an amazing job but so is the job you do now!
Fab journalling it's nice to wonder somedays over the paths we tread isn't it.
The what if qn's are always great aren't they! Lovely picture today
Love the photo today!
Lovely photo. Brilliant on the PhD - sounds interesting. It sounds like you are fulfilled as a mother though.
Wow you really are a boffin!but what a wonderful Mother you are and it seems you have produceed 3 wonderful daughters
Wow brains in our midst.
like this photo.
when i think about the decisions i've made and how a random set of actions has left me where *i* am.
I think you got off lighly :)
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