
{"id":2993,"date":"2019-06-26T12:24:53","date_gmt":"2019-06-26T12:24:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/science-is-suddenly-fun-again-post-our-ugly-breakup\/"},"modified":"2025-04-05T11:58:30","modified_gmt":"2025-04-05T11:58:30","slug":"science-is-suddenly-fun-again-post-our-ugly-breakup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/science-is-suddenly-fun-again-post-our-ugly-breakup","title":{"rendered":"Science is suddenly fun again, post our ugly breakup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 115%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">My name is Chelsea. I have known <a style=\"color: blue; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/meridith-bartley\">Meridith<\/a> since I moved to Kentucky in 1996. That was 19 year ago! Before anything else, I would like to use this post as a forum to show some funny pictures of us together, and then, I will talk about science.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive\" title=\"Default Title Text\" src=\"http:\/\/insights.cactusglobal.com\/sites\/default\/files\/Chelsea%201.jpg\" alt=\"Default Alt text\" data-file_info=\"%7B%22fid%22:%228896%22,%22view_mode%22:%22default%22,%22fields%22:%7B%22format%22:%22default%22,%22field_file_image_alt_text%5Bund%5D%5B0%5D%5Bvalue%5D%22:%22Default%20Alt%20text%22,%22field_file_image_title_text%5Bund%5D%5B0%5D%5Bvalue%5D%22:%22Default%20Title%20Text%22,%22field_image_tags%5Bund%5D%5Btextfield%5D%22:%22%22,%22field_image_tags%5Bund%5D%5Bvalue_field%5D%22:%22%5C%22%5C%22%5C%22%5C%22%22%7D,%22type%22:%22media%22%7D\" \/><br \/>\n<em><strong>Photographic evidence of Meridith and Chelsea\u2019s especially long friendship. Taken at Meridith\u2019s house in 1997.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 115%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">Glad I got that out of the way. Next, I want to share my story of taking a break from\u00a0my relationship with science to find what matters to me. I am writing this for those\u00a0who might be feeling burnt out or unsure about their path. In all stages of life, these\u00a0are completely normal feelings.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 115%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">I am an American living in Japan, where I work as an assistant language teacher\u00a0(ALT) for the Japanese Exchange &amp; Teaching (JET) program. In Japan, I teach English\u00a0to freshman high school students. But it was not always this way; I used to be a\u00a0geologist.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 115%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">In 2009, I graduated with my B.S. in geology from Western Kentucky University. That year, I moved to Albuquerque, NM where I began my M.S. in geochemistry at the University of New Mexico. I hit the ground running in graduate school with an M.S. research project that was big and s**y, and would bring a major elaboration on something that very few groups had managed to achieve (foreshadowing). My proposal involved locating nanoscale grains of stardust from ancient, long-dead\u00a0stars, locked away in meteorites on Earth.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 115%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">Sadly, my original M.S. project was a big, s**y dud. I spent almost a year and a half\u00a0failing at isolating stardust grains and generally not knowing what to do about it.\u00a0The failures were not\u00a0my fault, but I internalized and agonized over every one of them. At the time, I didn\u2019t\u00a0realize how common failed projects were, and that science wouldn\u2019t quite work\u00a0without the failures! However, it felt like every day I trudged wearily into the dark\u00a0lab, put in my time, and got nothing in return. I was at a motivation low and the stars\u00a0were just not with me (quite literally, it seems). Finally, I had the conversation with\u00a0my adviser that it was time to cut our losses.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 115%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">We salvaged the materials that we could and spun the thesis on a different axis, and I\u00a0still managed to scrape together an M.S. worthy project from the dust (not stardust)\u00a0of the original project. I graduated from a two-year M.S. program in three years\u2019\u00a0time.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 115%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">In 2012, with a freshly conferred M.S. degree and little regard for what actually made\u00a0me tick, I began slinging resumes into the black hole of internet job posts. I aimed\u00a0for anything labeled, \u201cjunior geologist\u201d or \u201cgeologist I.\u201d Through fluke and\u00a0recommendation, I landed a job with a uranium mining company in Albuquerque as\u00a0a staff geologist, even though I had never before considered mining as a career. After\u00a0my first month, I discovered that my opportunities for projects and professional\u00a0growth in that company were limited. Disappointingly, I garnered from tacit clues\u00a0that the short ceiling was due to my gender. In fact, once an aging male superior\u00a0spent 20 minutes imploring me to bring proper footwear into the field, as if I were\u00a0going to go clip-clopping around abandoned mine sites while wearing stilettos\u00a0because I was young and female\u2026 I only lasted 9 months before I found another job.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"center\" title=\"Default Title Text\" src=\"http:\/\/insights.cactusglobal.com\/sites\/default\/files\/Chelsea%202.png\" alt=\"Default Alt text\" data-file_info=\"%7B%22fid%22:%228897%22,%22view_mode%22:%22default%22,%22fields%22:%7B%22format%22:%22default%22,%22field_file_image_alt_text%5Bund%5D%5B0%5D%5Bvalue%5D%22:%22Default%20Alt%20text%22,%22field_file_image_title_text%5Bund%5D%5B0%5D%5Bvalue%5D%22:%22Default%20Title%20Text%22,%22field_image_tags%5Bund%5D%5Btextfield%5D%22:%22%22,%22field_image_tags%5Bund%5D%5Bvalue_field%5D%22:%22%5C%22%5C%22%5C%22%5C%22%22%7D,%22type%22:%22media%22%7D\" \/><br \/>\n<em><strong>A photo of me at my job as a mining geologist in Nevada.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 115%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">My next job, still in mining, brought me to work for one of the world\u2019s largest gold\u00a0producers. Impatient for the next step in the progression of things I felt I was\u00a0supposed to be doing, I signed on. Suddenly, I was 2000 feet underground every day,\u00a0in a stifling hot, bustling mine. I was bursting at the seams with an eagerness to\u00a0excel in this role, taking on extra duties and projects whenever possible. But this job,\u00a0too, was disproportionately dominated by males. My knowledge and\u00a0recommendations were frequently challenged, for perceivably no other reason than\u00a0it was difficult to gain acceptance as a woman operating in a scientific capacity. I\u00a0could never prove myself, as I was always asked to jump arbitrary hurdles that my\u00a0male counterparts were never expected to clear.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 115%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">I lasted two years in mining job number two.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 115%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">I liked being a scientist, but I\u2019ve got to say, it can be difficult lasting in the field as a woman. I was doing everything that I was supposed to do; I was in a good job with good benefits. Yet, my happiness and direction in life were very low.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 115%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">Like the end of a bad relationship, I felt something changing inside of me. In the past, I had a clear vision of how science could be my vehicle for learning and change, but I no longer knew why I was doing what I was doing. I needed out, and, as this is a real break-up story and not a romcom, I had to save myself. I took out a piece of paper and wrote down the things that made me happy. This may sound childish, but it can be difficult to remember every day why you are doing what you are doing.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 115%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">The biggest member of my happiness brainstorm was science; I have always loved concrete explanations of the natural world. Next was teaching. In graduate school, I taught an intro geology lab that I adored. I later taught at the local aquarium as a\u00a0docent. I loved the electrifying energy I felt when standing in front of a group of elementary students or a Girl Scouts troop, guiding them towards understanding the world around them. Also, on my list was the country of Japan. I had visited Japan in 2008 for a conference, and I was positively itching to return.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 115%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">It may seem obvious, but it took me roughly 26 years to understand what to do next. I began to search for career opportunities that would incorporate all of the things I loved the most. I learned about the JET program, which allows foreigners with little Japanese ability to teach conversational English in Japanese K-12\u00a0schools. While\u00a0admittedly light on science, JET gave me an avenue to combine my love for teaching with my love for Japan. In April 2014, I was accepted for a position in the rural Shimane prefecture. Leaving the comfort, security, and paycheck of my job in mining, I dropped everything and moved to Japan. This is one of the most difficult and rewarding things I have ever done.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 115%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">Now, it\u2019s February 2015, and it has been almost a year since I admitted to myself that I couldn\u2019t envision myself in a scientific career for the rest of my life. Currently, I am happily living and working in Japan. I don\u2019t make much money, I don\u2019t speak very much Japanese yet, and this job is only guaranteed for one year at a time. But I am the happiest I have been in a long time. Intriguingly, science has worked its way back into my life. I now live in a country with a drastically declining birth rate, where women are feeling more pressure than ever to stay home and have babies. The UNESCO 2007 UIS database (UN statistics division) estimates that women make up just 25% of tertiary science enrolments at Japanese universities. Females in this country have very little encouragement to get involved in STEM fields, and Japan has the lowest number of registered female scientists out of any OECD country.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 115%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">My past success in science places me squarely in an unintended science advocate role in my Japanese school. I am known among my local JET cohort as \u201cthe scientist,\u201d and at school, even outside of classes, I often speak about science and career opportunities in science with my senior high school students and staff members. I have several science-minded community activities up my sleeve. Recently, I\u2019ve had the opportunity to coach high-profile Japanese scientists in a nearby materials science laboratory about how to give the best scientific presentations in English. And, I\u2019m having a blast.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt;\"><span style=\"line-height: 115%;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;\">It took extreme career upheaval and a trans-Pacific move, but science is suddenly fun again. Science and I did have a connection; it just wasn\u2019t the one I was trying to force it to be. Our connection was embedded in one of the other things that make me most happy \u2013 education. I am enjoying my time in Japan so much that I signed on for a second year with JET, and when I get back to the US, I plan to begin my PhD in science education.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><i>This story was published on February 5, 2015, on Rachel\u2019s blog, \u2018<\/i><a style=\"color: blue; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/sweetteascience.com\/\"><i>Sweet Tea Science<\/i><\/a><i>\u2019 (available <\/i><a style=\"color: blue; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/sweetteascience.com\/2015\/02\/05\/part-2-money-isnt-everything-or-breaking-up-with-science\/\"><i>here<\/i><\/a><i>) and has been republished here with her permission.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My name is Chelsea. I have known Meridith since I moved to Kentucky in 1996. That was 19 year ago! Before anything else, I would like to use this post as a forum to show some funny pictures of us together, and then, I will talk about science. Photographic evidence of Meridith and Chelsea\u2019s especially [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":955,"featured_media":33313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2414],"tags":[2677,2454],"new_categories":[],"new_tags":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-2993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiring-researcher-stories","tag-leaving-academia","tag-researcher-stories"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Science is suddenly fun again, post our ugly breakup<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I am an American living in Japan, where I\u00a0teach English\u00a0to freshman high school students. But it was not always this way; I used to be a\u00a0geologist. 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