Limit (me) X->22

This week has been like an amusement park, and each day like a roller coaster. Monday had a mind-whipping Biochemistry exam, Tuesday the wobbling introduction to Dr. Sobrado's lab, and Thursday the manic cramming for drug chemistry. Still, the worst part was waiting in line for each exam. Seeing people studying one last note card in the hallway before the exam made me see how people could miss the point of studying in the rush to succeed. It was enough to make me start to feel pensive. What is worth studying?

So, since Wednesday I have been throwing out questions to my friends and mentors: "what is worth doing?", "What has been most rewarding for you?", and "What makes you excited in the mornings?" The most extensive answers I got were from Dr. Sobrado, a primary investigator (pi) in the biochemistry department at Virginia Tech. This summer I will be working in his lab, and I hope to get to know him better.

Dr. Sobrado responded to my query, "Has working as a PI been worth it?", in a short rap session we had together. "Working as a PI really depends on your personality," explained Dr. Sobrado, "and there are many people who love the science and ideas, but that's only part of the job. That's the title on paper, but in reality the work is very different." To be successful, Dr. Sobrado must allocate ten hours a week to our lab class--close to twenty when including grading and administration--and also manage hiring, publishing, ideating projects, and obtaining funding for the lab he runs in Fralin. "It's almost 80 hours a week in total," Sobrado said. And with such effort, one would think that he has earned the security of a comfortable lifestyle, but in truth his pay is around $80,000 (before our government has its take). "If I were mowing lawns for that many hours a week, I would get payed more," said Dr. Sobrado.

With that strong of a case against throwing myself at the wall of professorship--the future plan of four years of graduate school, two years of post-doctoral work, and half-decade of fighting for tenure--I thought I had settled on pharmacy as a strong alternative, until a bright man, Dr. Whitehouse made me think differently.

"Our approach to medicine has been engineered backwards," said Dr. Whitehouse on Ginger Campbell's neuroscience podcast, "we have been thinking in terms of nobel-prize-winning scientists and profit-based funding from drug companies. The science of these things has been over-hyped by medicine and research politics." Dr. Whitehouse explained that a solution should include the context of society. We need to shift our thinking so that people with the label of Alzheimer's disease can be included, not left to die. That's why Dr. Whitehouse created his inter-generational school. Together with his wife, Dr. Whitehouse runs a school for 9-12th gradeers and the elderly or people diagnosed with dementia. "These people need a sense of purpose, not a pill without any effect more statistically significant than a placebo."

So, not wanting to peddle the goods of an increasingly overbearing pharmaceutical companies, I'm left with more questions. Sounds like a good thing to sleep on.