Following my joy...

Tonight at work I was reading over the newsletter for my other work, when I came across an interview with Carol Greider, winner of this year's Nobel Prize in science. She received the award for a discovery she had made back in 1984, regarding telomeres and a substance called telomerase that could help with diseases including cancer. But it wasn't the description of her discovery that caught my attention. It was her discussion about how she got there.

I never planned a career. I had these blinders on that got me through a lot of things that might have been obstacles. I just went forward. It’s a skill that I had early on that must have been adaptive. I enjoyed biology in high school and that brought me to a research lab at U.C. Santa Barbara. I loved doing experiments and I had fun with them. I realized this kind of problem-solving fit my intellectual style. So in order to continue having fun, I decided to go to graduate school at Berkeley. It was there that I went to Liz Blackburn’s lab, where telomeres were being studied.

Who ever heard of going to graduate school to have fun?! Ha! Nobody is supposed to enjoy school. Nobody is supposed to enjoy life. Are they? I think a lot of people have lost that concept. The focus is on doing what's smart, what's stable, what's most financially rewarding. I love the simplicity she shows of following your joy. I think it is such a freeing idea to just do what you love without even thinking.

It's funny to me that it is so hard for me to do what I love. I almost feel guilty doing things that I enjoy. I can't stop thinking of other, more important, things I should be doing. But look where following her joy got Greider. A perfect example of the chaos of positivity. One person following her joy leads to others' lives being saved. When positivity is involved, the possibilities are infinite.


Following my joy means being surrounded by thoughts- words, books, movies. These are a few of my favorite books from when I was young.