Living in Germany for the past few months has been both amazing and challenging. Not speaking the language, being away from my family and adjusting to a new work environment are some of the obstacles that I've faced. At the same time, I've also met wonderful people, developed a healthy work schedule, explored Berlin and learned a lot about Germany as well as myself. It's been a pleasure to share the first half of my journey with all of you. Thanks to you, I've sat down every week to reflect on my experiences and write about the lessons I've learned so that you could learn along with me.
Writing and Skyping with you has also made me think about myself as a fifth grader, also in a NYC public school. Back then, I had no idea that I could ever live in another country and research science professionally! Throughout college especially, I always had some idea of what I wanted to do once I graduated, but that idea was constantly changing. As I learned about astrophysics, traveled to see telescopes and attend conferences and met people in the field, I learned about different career opportunities and life paths. I found myself pursuing the opportunities that I really cared about, which made it easy to put a lot of work into whatever I was doing.
