The Offer

So, I think the best way to start this entry off is with a little more background information. So I've just finished my first year at Tufts Medical School (1/4 MD YAY!!!). This summer I'm working in a Neurology lab at Beth Israel/Harvard doing some research on a rare kind of genetic epilepsy (Autosomal Dominant Lateral Temporal Lobe Epilepsy or ADLTE). The only reason I have this job is I happened to be the first to respond to an email that my entire class received when my boss was looking for someone to take a NIH funded training position for the summer. For some reason my boss was like beyond amped when he got my email so I basically had the job is just over 24 hours.

Fast forward to the present. I've been working my ass off running tons of experiments and writing protocols and doing research for a review on the protein complex that we're studying that's going to get published...at some point in the near future. Earlier this week my boss came up to me within minutes of my getting in and offered me a job. Like take a year off from med school and work in his lab and get a few papers to my name including one where I would be the primary author. I can only imagine the look of bewildered panic that must have been on my face. So I'm thinking about it...and my first reaction is "Wait, when do you want me to do this?" Well of course he would prefer this coming year but if I really wanted he supposed he could wait a year. So I'm thinking some more...I don't really want to take this year off but maybe taking a year off before clinicals wouldn't suck too bad. Except I've always put school first...but that was so that I could go to med school and I'm already in med school so maybe it doesn't need to go first anymore? Except this whole idea of taking a year off makes me really uneasy and I just can't put my finger on it. So I talk to my parents because I'm living at home so it's going to affect them the most. My mom brings up the fact that by taking a year off I will a) probably have to start repayment on my loans (EEEK!!!) and b) not be able to get converage from my parents health insurance through the rest of med school. So I think some more...my brain is a little worse for wear at this point...Tufts has this program called Selectives...I could do a research selective and then come in one more afternoon a week...that would give me 8 hours in the lab a week and that's plenty of time to run one of my experiments!

So I'm all pumped because I figured out a compromise and I might even get paid for the second afternoon that I come in every week...and getting a paycheck even if it's tiny is awesome!! So I try to talk to him yesterday but whenever I actually had more than 5 minutes to talk to him he was either on the phone or meeting with someone. And the one time I did get to talk to him some random person showed up unannounced to talk to him...GAH!!! So I go home last night a little irritated because I wanted to get things settled so that I could plan...cuz I'm a planner and that's what I do...I really need to finish that chapter in my Psychiatry textbook to see if I really do have Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder (probably not since I manage to function relatively well...just don't move my things around or I might have to kill you :P) Innywho, I get into work this morning and I get started on my experiments and I look to see if he's here...no...of course not it's 8AM and I'm the only person on the entire floor! So then he finally comes in at like 9:30 and starts talking to me about all this stuff I need to order and all the experiments I'm going to have to run and pretty much out of nowhere is like "So you're not going to be staying here next year are you?" So then I explain to him how I can come twice and week and he looks like Christmas came early. So in sort I apparently not only managed to get myself a job in a Harvard lab for the summer but one for the school year too...I'd say that's pretty sweet.

And on a slightly more interesting note, Alicia and I are going to see Yarn Harlot when she comes to Burlington, MA in August...this is squee-tastic!! Also Harry Potter tonight...lots of Harry Potter. A friend (Sarah) and I are planning to go to the party at the Prudential Center Barnes and Nobles at 6 possibly hop over to the party in "Hogwarts" (Harvard) Square to see Harry and the Potters, Draco and the Malfoys, and the Hungarian Horntails then head back home to the Barnes and Noble in Walpole to get our numbers and at some point get dinner. And then it's home to read until I fall asleep then wake up early and finish reading. I love you Harry...and I will miss waiting for the next book to come out...but I will stay strong and I will survive.