AG-F told me the other day that our old lab is slowly closing. :(MAP-F is going to be leaving the lab soon. Last year 3 post-docs left: LC-F (back home to Brazil), BE-F (for a professorship position somewhere in Illinois), and NS-F (for a lab position in California). And QF-F will be leaving soon when she graduates with her PhD. She's my favorite person in the lab - such a calming and industrious influence while at the same time being highly amusing. My old researcher, MMC-F, doesn't want to stay and went on several interviews last year even while she was pregnant with her daughter (she's really cute in the pictures, btw). The only guy in the lab, SD-M, also doesn't want to stay and has interviewed at several places. Neither he nor my researcher got any positions offered to them. Now this leaves only MB-F and AV-F left, but both of them are part-time researchers. AV-F actually teaches middle school science, which is really cool.
So there it is. Of the "original" 9 lab members as I know them, it'll be down to 2 within the next couple years. And there are no undergrads working in the lab anymore, as far as I know! There's always been 1-3 undergrads in her lab for at least the last 5-7 years. Anyway, this is all besides the point, sad though it is.
The point of this post is that as I was going through my old folders and cleaning my room, getting the last bits settled, I found something I copied from my researcher's desk that someone had emailed her. Read carefully the following:
"As we grow up, we learn that even the one person that wasn't supposed to ever let you down probably will. You will have your heart broken probably more than once and it's harder every time. You'll break hearts too, so remember how it felt when yours was broken. You'll fight with your best friend. You'll blame a new love for things an old one did. You'll cry because time is passing too fast, and you'll eventually lose someone you love. So take many pictures, laugh much more, and love like you've never been hurt. Because every 60 seconds you spend upset is a minute of happiness you'll never get back.
Don't be afraid that your life will end, be afraid that it will never begin."
I think these are words to live by.
4 comments:
Though it presumes that happiness is something can be generated/produced at will. Things don't come like that for some people. We're painfully aware that life is happening, maybe more than anyone else...it just is not something that we generally are able to take joy in.
Anyways, the sentiment is a good one. Too bad about the lab :(.
I think those are pretty good words. I wonder about the last heartbreak being the worst. My only one came about 15 years ago, and it was pretty bad. I hadn't let myself fall so deeply in love for a long time, and I may never have felt so bonded to a friend. He thought he was straight, and he may have been. Since he shut me out of his life, I haven't let myself get that much in love with anyone ( except for one person I already knew at the time). When you're trying to be celibate, getting head-over-heels for someone is just asking for sorrow.
I also think that we don't have to quite as fatalistic as those words. Yeah, that stuff can happen, is likely to happen, but if we see sad situations developing, maybe we can do something so they don't become major tragedies in our lives.
"As we grow up, we learn that even the one person that wasn't supposed to ever let you down probably will...(words words)..Don't be afraid that your life will end, be afraid that it will never begin."
This is so true. This quote though not sure where it's from, speaks more than just what it says. It's kinda funny cause I was just talking about living in the moment.
Good post. I hope all goes well with the lab, Change is inevitable. I guess i hate that about life.
james: I do believe happiness is what we make of it. Yeah, sometimes it comes to us. But sometimes we must seek it.
naturgesetz: I don't find the words fatalistic at all. I actually find them somewhat comforting.
jason: Thanks! Interestingly, change is something I do like about life (much of the time anyway).
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