Two years ago, I broke up with academia

I have been busy lately. Busy times, life-wise and mind-wise. This past weekend, I would have had enough things to do to keep me entertained the whole time, but despite that, I decided to go on a short trip. One big meeting was being held nearby and I knew my former PI and my former collaborator were attending it too – I decided it was a good opportunity to catch up. When I was in academia, my collaborator and I used to have weekly lab meetings through Skype. Before (and after) that we were always good friends, but after I left academia our conversations became scarce, and I miss her a lot.

Initially, I was not attending the meeting. I was only going to be there for one whole day, and the registration was far too expensive (I checked). But then the miracle of the multiplication of badges happened and before I could notice, there I was, at the conference. I attended a couple of talks, which was very interesting at first, but brought me a certain feeling of nostalgia. At the end of the day, even though new data could bring me new ideas, I am not doing work in academia anymore and those new ideas could never be put into practice.

Then I went to the poster session. There were only a couple of rows with posters about my previous research, so it was easy to go through all of them. I stopped by a poster that was being presented by a student. I listened to the presentation, made comments, and asked questions. By the end, the student tried to read my badge (that was strategically hidden) and asked where I was, and what my research was about. I froze for a second, told her that I was not in academia anymore, but used to work with that topic; mentioned the last paper I’d published as a first author, and she immediately recognized it. Bittersweet feelings again, as she suggested a possible follow up to the paper.

While wandering around the poster session, I saw a lot of researchers I knew there. They were all busy talking to poster presenters, and normally I’d just stay around, until I’d talk to them. Some of them saw me and waved. Some of them… I didn’t really want them to see me. I started to feel extremely uncomfortable. I couldn’t really understand what was going on at that moment, but I just wanted to get the hell out of there. Someone mentioned an interesting talk was going to happen after the poster session. The topic was delightful, and the speaker was an old friend of mine. But at some point I simply realized that this was not my life anymore, I had no reason for being there. That was part of my past, a past I left behind and that I didn’t want to come back to. So I just picked up my stuff and walked back to the hotel.

You know how they say that after you break up with someone, you need to meet that person again to see if you’re fully over it? That’s how it felt. Two years ago, I broke up with academia, ending a relationship of almost 20 years. It was tough in the beginning, but after a while you don’t think that much about your ex, and you end up forgetting your feelings about it. This past weekend I met my lover again. I realized that, although I still have feelings for it, breaking up was the right thing to do. But like every long term relationship breakup, it still hurts when you meet.

I feel stronger now. I feel I took one more step: leaving the past where it belongs and looking forward to my future. Will we meet again? Certainly. But I know that next time, it will be different. A lot less painful. And easier.

P.S. The lover breakup analogy was probably used by several people before. But the first that comes to my mind is this post by Lenny Teytelman: Dear Academia, I loved you, but I’m leaving you. This relationship is hurting me. It is worth reading!

Cleyde Helena (@Doctor_PMS) is an Academic Account Manager, Analytical Instruments. This story was published on April 3, 2017, on Cleyde’s blog, Science Reverie (available here) and has been republished here with permission.