You're In!

Hi! I'm Aidan. I'm a gamer, a total fantasy & sci-fi geek, and generally a world class nerd. I love to bake (but more on that later). And I'm a recently admitted Masters candidate at UC Riverside.

For the past several years, I've worked as a lab technician. It wasn't always (okay, it was rarely) the most glamorous job in the world, but it was a steady paycheck when the economy got all wibbly-wobbly, and I kept telling myself that it was only a temporary deal anyways. Just until I got into grad school. Yep, any day now I would be done with lab chores and on to research that I was actually interested in... aaaany time now...

I spent the years just biding my time. I would be lying if I said it was a waste of time --don't get me wrong, I really did learn a LOT, and got tons of research experience besides-- but every Fall, as I watched all the new grad students infiltrating campus, I couldn't help feeling a little pang of desperation that I wasn't among their ranks, on this campus or anywhere else. 

But now my time has finally come. I was somehow lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time to take up the project that will get me through this leg of grad school. After half a decade of being stagnant, I find myself hurtling forward at breakneck speed (which I'll admit is a little terrifying) toward reaching my dusty yet still-intact goals.

I don't think I'll ever forget the first time I read my acceptance letter (or rather, acceptance email nowadays): "We are pleased to welcome you into the Entomology graduate program as a Dean's Distinguished Fellow..." Wow. Me? Distinguished? Two years' full funding plus stipend?  All the rejection letters from previous years seemed to just melt away (except for CSUSD, that one hurt).

So now I'm on my way, but I'm predicting my road to enlightenment will also drive me a bit insane. So this is my SOS to the world, my message in a bottle.

Greetings from Grad School! Weather's beautiful, wish you were here!