Still Swimming

Well, that was an entirely unintentional month off.  Apologies to those checking for regular updates (especially since I hinted they would be coming in the last post… on October 18th).  I won’t dodge the issue: I’ve officially hit the rough part of being a grad student.  After having a reasonably smooth path to my Masters, it’s finally my turn to get my butt kicked.  I won’t go into details, but suffice to say it’s been a while since I’ve had a good “win,” and it’s given me a raging case of imposter syndrome.  As a result, my motivation to post dropped recently.

Which was stupid.  My problems are ultimately “first-world problems.”  Rough patches happen to everyone and are practically a requirement for getting through grad school.  The only way to get through them is to continue finding ways to enjoy the time spent riding them out.  This blog is a part of my grad school/young scientist experience that I not only enjoy, but actually have some control over.  With that in mind, I’m forcing myself to start regularly putting stuff up here again.  Expect at least two new posts this week, and that’s a pace I will try to keep up going forward.  I have a pretty good backlog of papers and management issues I’ve been meaning to write about, as well as an overdue field work recap or two.

This concludes my public apology and expression of feelings.  Keep checking in for more small shark science.  I may have something new up as soon as this evening…