I can't stop grinning like an idiot

[ultranos]

Well, my 36_stratagems fic is officially overdue, which is kind of embarrassing since it's my own damn ficathon. However, I do, in fact, have a good excuse.

That is, if "interviewing with and ultimately getting hired by the MIT Media Lab's Synthetic Neurobiology Group as a technical assistant" is a valid excuse. :)

I swear to god, I can't escape this place. Granted, I'm not trying very hard.

Comments

[abyssinia]

*nods* Boston is indeed a very cool city, and it's one you're comfortable in.

And I get to make little devices that go into brains! SO AWESOME.

...
...
...
Excuse me, I spent too much time brainstorming with you last year to not know where that leads.

(You totally need to visit - if nothing else, to teach me to play video games :P and you can seriously find cheap flights if you're flexible and we have a guest room with a bed so it wouldn't be that expensive of a trip and, and, and...*gives you puppy dog eyes*)

YAY EXCITED! When do you start?

[ultranos]

There is something to be said for comfort. I don't yet like the idea of getting too settled, but at the moment, it's a little less upheaval. And I'm...happy. It's a weird feeling.

Excuse me, I spent too much time brainstorming with you last year to not know where that leads.

*tries to look innocent*
I deny everything.

(I do need to visit! Once I start gaining vacation days [because other than Christmas, lord knows what else I'll do with the silly things])

I start Monday! (eeep!)

[abyssinia]

There definitely is. After college I very carefully chose to go far away, because I needed to let go, and there's definitely a lot of drawbacks to going away from your comfort zone. And happy? Happy is very, very, very good.

Deny all you want, I know better.

(*waits patiently for your vacation days*)

eep! And YAY!

[ultranos]

Yeah, I don't need to let go, not right now. For the first time, I'm possibly completely comfortable and happy and content. Or at least, have the possibility to be. It's...kinda nice.

*deny deny deny* Crap, that's not working, is it?

(yaay, vacation days)

I KNOW. New Boss was like "when do you want to start?"
Me: "Uh, I don't actually have a preference."
Him: "How about Monday?"
Me: "Um, okay."

[abyssinia]

*nods* I think it's also a function of us going to undergraduate institutions with some fundamentally different operating parameters (what with mine being tiny and undergraduate only). I worried that if I stayed, I'd become one of those creepy alumni who hung around pretending they still belonged there, and I really needed to break free of some things. There are ways it worked out well, and ways it didn't, and that doesn't mean my choice is right for anyone else.

And, dude, comfortable and happy and content means A LOT.

start dates are good :)

[ultranos]

Re: alumni hanging around

I have no idea what you're talking about. :) (I say this as I'm hanging out in a student group's office.)

(Actually, there's a whole subculture of MIT where it's the norm to have a fairly large degree of alumni involvement. But the East Side of MIT is, possibly, A Bit Different.)

[abyssinia]

:P

Ah, but I think in MIT's case it's much less creepy. You have a graduate school and various labs which hire people, making there be a lot more valid reasons for alumni to hang around. Whereas a tiny almost-entirely-residential college with only undergrad students and professors....it just gets to be creepy. Every year there were always a couple alums who'd keep stopping by, and it was always a little sad. Occasional alumni involvement is one thing (stopping by for certain events, especially while you still know people, or alumni weekend) but just hanging out in your old dorm on a Thursday night....creepy.