The end of my PhD is drawing near, just a few more months of lab work, but what will be next? I have been pretty busy lately, trying to figure out what I want to do with my life exactly, as I do not want to continue in science.
Though it is an extra task in a stressful time with a full workload, it is nice to think beyond what life is like right now and what it could be in the future. It feels the same way as it did at the end of my master studies; I am excited about the possibilities. The world is open to me. I can grasp for what I want.
When I first realized that I didn’t want to continue in science, I was quite puzzled with what to do, as this was the career I had chosen at one point, that I had studied for. What else was I supposed to do? I got the advice from a friend, to get clarity over the specific tasks that I enjoyed and why I liked them, as well as why I disliked the tasks that I did not feel like doing.
When I first realized that I didn’t want to continue in science, I was quite puzzled with what to do
I get into a flow when I research literature to find the answer to a question, I almost feel like a detective trying to solve a case when I do that. I love to share the knowledge just as the challenges of preparing a presentation that is both interesting and understandable for the students in our department as well as my colleagues. And of course, I like to write. My hands fly over the keyboard when they bring my thoughts onto paper.
Because of that, I started blogging about science some time ago, and I absolutely love it. There you go, I want to be a science journalist or science communicator. Now, I only need to finish my PhD and find a nice job in that direction. I cannot wait to achieve these goals, as I would like to begin my new future sooner rather than later.
Katrin Heidemeyer came to Wageningen in 2014 to do her Masters, and started her PhD at the Laboratory of Biochemistry thee years ago. She hails from Germany.
