The Next Chapter

At the start of the year and at the start of this blog, I posted about the next chapter of my life. Yes a blog all about me! I don't seem to do many haha

But I do blog when there is significant change in my life, and this is another point in my journey, this year. At the start of the year, I moved back to Lancaster, the place filled with memories as I had been studying there just the year before. It was expected to be strange, with many of my friends not being there, working instead of studying and living as a tenant in a room in a house. But it was absolutely fantastic, the whole experience was just great. I would never have had expected to be working at the place I studied and love. But it happened, and it was great!

 

The 4 month contract at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology was a really good experience and improved many of my skills and I got a good idea of how research projects work within these large research centres. I met many amazing people and got an idea of how it is to take on a Phd. Being probably the youngest person there I was the least experienced and I was shocked to find that some of my colleagues had spent many years doing Phds and Postdocs when I felt they were more or less the same age as me! I got to do many interesting things, from spending days grinding soil, sieving soil, ovening soil .... to fieldwork. It was good to get an idea of the whole sampling, processing and analysing process and the fieldwork was great. Being put up in these nice big hotels and lodges and going out in huge crop fields taking soil cores and litter samples. I really enjoyed my time at CEH and it was a shame that the position was not longer, but now I have the experience needed to look more attractive to other employers and there are several positions I am currently applying for with which my experience has been key.

 

I still had some friends up there in Lancaster and it was good spending more time with them, with many funny nights out and social events! During this time I was living with in a really nice family in their spare room. They were really nice and almost like a foster family. I was so grateful for everything they did and thank them so much!! I definitely don't think I would have enjoyed my experience much if I'd have had a spare room in a different house.

 

So now I am back home, for now. With further job searching and awaiting a reply from others also. I am going to relax over the next week or so and have much planned for the weekends through until July! So I will be busy and have things to look forward to!

 

So it might be the next chapter, it might be the small interval between the next chapter.