You won’t give up, if you really want something.

Internet update: still nothing. Neighbours still haven’t noticed my continuous camping outside of their house. But good news, I finally have my internet data back on my phone… but I need to learn from my mistakes and not use it all up in one week. Terrified of this months cell phone bill…

I have awesome news! I have been accepted to the Masters that I have been trying to get since August 2014. Since the first email I sent out, I went through high’s and low’s. At first I was told that “you are a great researcher, I am really interested in having you, I’ve heard only great things about you…. BUT I don’t think I’ll have the money to support you”. When I want something I will not give up. So we kept emailing back and forth with my hopeful-future-supervisor, only sharing good news with each other about how maybe there might be an opportunity, etc etc. However, in November I get the dreaded “I apologize but I definitely won’t have money to support a project for any future students”. NOOOOOOOOO. Not only did my heart break (I am so in love with this research, interestingly enough it’s what I like to read up on in my spare time, think of projects here and there, and alone in my room question other works on this topic), but I was also completely screwed because by November I hadn’t applied anywhere else…. This supervisor, this school, was my first and only choice that I really wanted to pursue.

Like I said I don’t take no for an answer, so I set up an interview with this professor. In person he can see my passion, my determination, and my willingness to do whatever I can, to find the money and work in this lab, I just needed some help that was all.

In December was when I had the interview (conveniently it was because I was in Canada for the month, and also travelled to the University city). We talked about how awesome it would be to work together, but how unfortunate it is to be a biologist at this time in Canada…. You know funding cuts, environmental space shut-downs, the refusal to take scientific research into consideration… yes clearly all logical choices that are only for the good of science… Anyways, I really admire this professor for still showing me around, taking the time to talk to me about my interests, and suggest other professors I could apply to. I didn’t go into the interview with an expectation of hearing “we found a secret treasure that can support all research everywhere!”… Although it would have been nice.

So after returning back to France, guess what email I receive in the beginning of February “Anastasia there is a slight chance we might be able to take you on! I’ll let you know soon” WHHHHAAATTT!! How exciting! Well a month had passed and nothing… Although the silly human that I am I still had so much hope that I’d soon hear good news. So I took things into my own hands and contacted the professor with a simple “Any update?” Turns out he had some email problems and had already sent out my “good news” email!

So after all the struggle, all the stress, and all the support from my friends and family I can proudly say I will be starting a Masters program at my number one choice university, researching topics that I’ve been passionate about since second year of University! YES!

Some Disclamers:

Email’s are not word for word… more like really paraphrased.

No I will not mention where I am going and who I am working with on a public blog that is viewed around the world (seriously my 2^nd highest country to view this blog is Ireland… that’s so awesome, just really unexpected) because that is unprofessional and irresponsible.

All in all, if you want something DO NOT GIVE UP… if you do, then you clearly did not want it that badly in the first place.

Back to France blogging next post, I did not have much to write about this week anyways other than how I’ve painted, got motion sickness from the swings, and found a dead rat that I then had to maneuver into the bushes with a stick. So not so interesting.