From freshman year of high school I had been dead-set on becoming a research astronomer. I had a plan. Namely, college major in physics, graduate school in astrophysics, job at a research lab. It was a simple plan. It was THE PLAN. But like anyone, my interests shifted. For me the shift was subtle, and slow over time. In the end, three years of ignoring what really fascinated me while trying to follow a path that was no longer my true passion had produced some results that made me terribly unhappy. Despite all of this, I am the type of person who makes a PLAN, and sticks to it. It wasn’t until I read at least two articles on the subject of astronomy graduate school that I began to think maybe THE PLAN was no longer working. When you’re reading an article entitled “So you want to go to graduate school in astronomy?” and your answers to the questions they are posing are continually “no”, something needs to change. I realized that if I continued on my current path, I would end up in a career I would not enjoy. THE PLAN came crashing down. After six years of every step being predetermined for me (except the steps I chose to take on my own), I suddenly had not the slightest idea of which way to go.

So this summer I started Googling for graduate programs that looked interesting. I knew I still loved science, but science by itself somehow was not creative enough to satisfy me. After flailing about the web for what seemed like forever, it occurred to me that I was approaching the problem the wrong way. My interests had shifted. I needed to reconnect with what it was I was really looking for. I made a list of things that I liked to do, from the normal things like reading and writing, to the more specific activities such as solving puzzles and fostering excitement in others. The complete list confirmed for me that my interests were far more interdisciplinary and creatively oriented than they had been six years ago. Next, instead of trying to find the right program, I made a list of the right types of jobs. Some things that made the list were writing for scientific magazines, writing and editing for science TV shows, designing museum exhibits, advocating for science funding at the national level, and even PR for a large research organization like NASA or JPL. Suddenly the trend emerged: all of the jobs that I would be happy to do for the rest of my life had strong components of science writing and creativity. Suddenly I had a much narrower search parameter.

I began to look up people who had such jobs, in an attempt to learn what academic paths led them to their position in life. In my hours of web surfing I also ran across the web pages of the American Astronomical Society and the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing. Both organizations provided great material informing the general public of what careers in their fields were really like. An hour’s worth of skimming confirmed for me that research astronomer was no longer my life passion, but that a job as a science writer was looking more interesting by the minute. Both sites also had examples of jobs in their field that even I had not thought of.

So armed with relevant information and a new point of view, I set out on the true quest for the right graduate program…

(To be continued)